THE  COMPLETE 
OEATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 


OF 


HENRY  W.  GRADY 


EDITED  BY 

EDWIN    DuBOIS    SHURTER 

ASSOCIATE    PROFESSOR   OF   PUBLIC   SPEAKING 
IN   THE   UNIVERSITY  OF   TEXAS 


SOUTH-WEST  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Q 


COPYRIGHT,  1910,  BY 
EDWIN  DuBOIS  SHURTER. 


. . 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

THIS  volume  of  the  complete  orations  and 
speeches  of  Henry  W.  Grady  has  been  prepared 
in  the  belief  that  a  separate  edition  of  the  ora 
torical  efforts  of  this  gifted  Southerner  will  be 
welcomed  by  his  many  admirers ;  for,  without 
disparagement  of  other  speakers,  Grady  stands, 
by  common  consent,  as  the  representative  South 
ern  orator  since  the  Civil  War.  Some  of  his 
orations  were  included  in  a  Memorial  volume, 
an  edition  now  exhausted,  and  prepared,  as  was 
remarked  by  the  editor,  Mr.  Joel  Chandler  Harris, 
"in  a  great  hurry."  Fugitive  speeches  of  Mr. 
Grady  have  been  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  and 
four  of  his  orations  have  been  edited  for  school 
and  college  classes  in  oratory,  but  a  separate 
edition  of  all  his  orations  and  speeches  has  not 
before  been  published.  The  Temperance  speech 
in  the  present  volume,  in  defense  of  prohibition 
in  Atlanta,  has  not,  I  think,  heretofore  ap 
peared  in  print  except  in  a  newspaper  report. 

iii 


M130126 


PREFACE 

For  the  text  of  the  orations  and  speeches  I  am 
indebted  to  the  courtesy  of  the  editors  of  the 
Atlanta  Constitution,  in  the  pages  of  which  the 

addresses  originally  appeared. 

E.  D.  S. 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  TEXAS, 
February,  1910. 


IV 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

INTRODUCTION  :  GRADY  AS  AN  ORATOR  ....        1 

THE  NEW  SOUTH 7 

A  speech  delivered  at  the  banquet  of  the  New  Eng 
land  Society,  New  York,  December  21,  1886. 

THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 23 

An  address  at  the  Dallas,  Texas,  State  Fair,  October 
26,  1887. 

THE  " SOLID  SOUTH" 65 

An  address  given  at  the  Augusta  Exposition,  Novem 
ber,  1887. 

A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 98 

A  speech  made  during  the  Prohibition  Campaign  in 
Atlanta,  November  17,  1887. 

AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 134 

An  oration  delivered  before  the  Literary  Societies  of 
the  University  of  Virginia,  June  25, 1889. 

THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 158 

Speech  at  Elberton,  Georgia,  June,  1889. 

THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH        .        .        .        .192 
A  speech  delivered  at  the  annual  banquet  of  the 
Boston  Merchants'  Association,  December,  1889. 

PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 221 

A  speech  delivered  before  the  Bay  State  Club,  Boston, 
in  1889. 

V 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

INTRODUCTION1 
GRADY  AS  AN  ORATOR 

HENRY  WOODFIN  GRADY,  journalist  and 
orator,  was  born  at  Athens,  Georgia,  April  24, 1850. 
He  graduated  from  the  State  University,  at 
Athens,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  took  a  post 
graduate  course  at  the  University  of  Virginia. 
For  some  time  he  acted  as  Southern  correspond 
ent  for  the  New  York  Herald,  and  later  became 
editor  of  the  Rome  (Georgia)  Daily  Commercial 
and  of  the  Atlanta  Herald.  His  journalistic 
efforts  were  not  financially  successful  until,  in 
1880,  he  became  editor  and  part  owner  of  the 
Atlanta  Constitution.  He  remained  with  this 
paper  until  his  death,  December  23, 1889. 

To  the  argument  that  the  press  in  modern 
times  has  supplanted  oratory,  the  career  of 
Henry  W.  Grady  is  a  refutation.  Journalism 
was  his  profession,  while  his  oratory  was  an  in 
cident  ;  and  yet  his  fame  and  influence  came 

1  In  part  a  reprint  from  the  Editor's  Masterpieces  of  Modern 
Oratory. 

1 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

chiefly  through  the  incident.  It  is  but  a  com 
paratively  short  time  since  his  last  public  ad 
dress  was  delivered,  yet  even  now  the  story  of 
his  oratorical  triumphs  reads  like  a  doubtful 
tale.  On  December  21,  1886,  he  accepted  an 
invitation  to  speak  on  the  "  New  South  "  at  the 
annual  banquet  of  the  New  England  Society,  in 
New  York  City.  The  reception  of  this  speech, 
both  by  the  immediate  audience  and  by  that 
larger  audience  reached  through  the  press, 
amounted  to  a  sensation.  The  night  of  the 
speech  Grady  was  favorably  known  in  his  own 
section ;  the  next  morning  he  was  receiving  the 
enthusiastic  plaudits  of  the  whole  country.  Not 
excepting  Mr.  Bryan's  effort  at  Chicago,  —  and 
excelling  it  in  sustained  interest  and  influence, — 
nothing  in  the  history  of  modern  oratory  equals 
Grady 's  rocket-like  flight  to  fame.  Through  this 
single  speech  he  became  a  national  figure,  and 
his  oratory  of  national  renown  and  influence. 

The  better  to  understand  Grady's  oratory,  let 
us  briefly  consider  his  equipment,  and  the  cause 
to  which  his  life  was  devoted. 

Introduced  to  a  Boston  audience  as  "the  in. 
comparable  orator  of  the  day,"  Grady  remarked, 
"  I  am  a  talker  by  inheritance :  my  father  was 
an  Irishman  and  my  mother  was  a  woman." 
His  Irish  ancestry  may  explain  his  ready  wit 
and  delicious  humor,  his  facility  and  fluency  in 


INTRODUCTION 

extempore  speaking,  and,  in  part,  the  ornateness 
and  emotionalism  that  characterize  his  speeches. 
His  experience  as  a  reporter  in  various  fields  no 
doubt  aided  him  in  acquiring  a  vocabulary,  in 
appreciating  the  power  of  words,  and  in  gaining 
facility  in  their  use.  Further,  he  must  have 
had  the  oratorical  instinct  early  developed.  At 
the  University  of  Georgia  he  took  an  active 
part  in  the  work  of  the  literary  and  debating 
societies,  and  his  chief  ambition  was  to  become 
"  Society  Orator."  At  the  University  of  Virginia 
his  main  object,  says  his  biographer,  Joel  Chand 
ler  Harris,  was  to  perfect  himself  in  oratory. 

Grady's  style,  generally,  has  been  criticised  as 
excessively  ornate.  A  leading  Boston  lawyer 
described  his  speech  on  "  The  Race  Problem  in 
the  South"  as  a  "cannon  ball  in  full  flight, 
fringed  with  flowers."  But  taking  his  speeches 
as  a  whole,  there  are  more  flowers  than  cannon- 
balls.  Grady's  natural  element  was  in  the  realm 
of  fancy ;  he  aimed  to  move  and  win  his  hearers, 
not  to  drive  or  force  them.  In  the  prohibition 
campaign  in  Atlanta,  in  188T,  Grady  came  out 
as  a  strong  prohibitionist,  while  his  associate  oil 
the  Constitution,  Captain  E.  P.  Howell,  was  an 
equally  strong  antiprohibitionist.  Both  were  on 
the  hustings  in  advocacy  of  their  respective  sides. 
A  reporter  on  the  Atlanta  Evening  Journal  con 
trasted  their  oratory  in  the  following  description, 

3 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

which  is  interesting  as  a  record  of  contemporary 
impressions :  — 

"Howell  makes  you  feel  as  if  he  were  the 
commander  of  an  army,  waving  his  sword  and 
saying,  « Follow  me,'  and  you  would  follow  him 
to  the  death;  Grady  makes  you  feel  like  you 
want  to  be  an  angel  and  with  the  angels  stand. 
Howell  will  march  his  audience,  like  an  army, 
through  flood  and  fire  and  fell ;  with  subtle 
humor  Grady  will  lead  his  audience  by  the  still 
waters  where  pleasant  pastures  lie,  —  and  there 
he  will  'take  the  wings  of  the  morning  and  fly 
to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea.'  In  Howell's 
march  the  drumbeat  never  ceases ;  in  Grady's 
flights  you  hear  only  the  cherubim's  wings. 
Howell's  eloquence  is  like  a  rushing  mountain 
stream  that  tears  every  rock  and  crag  from  its 
path,  gathering  volume  as  it  goes  ;  Grady's  is 
like  a  cumulus  cloud  that  rises  invisible  as  mist 
till  it  unfolds  its  white  banners  in  the  sky. 
Howell  will  doubtless  deal  in  statistics ;  Grady 
will  have  figures,  but  they  will  not  smell  of  the 
census.  They  will  take  on  the  pleasing  shape 
that  induced  one  of  his  reporters  to  plant  a  crop 
of  Irish  potatoes  on  a  speculation.  To-night 
Atlanta  will  be  treated  to  a  hopeful  view  of  pro 
hibition  by  the  most  eloquent  optimist  in  the 
country." 

•  The  great  cause  to  which  Grady  gave  his  life 

4 


INTRODUCTION 

was  that  of  the  South  and  her  future.  Journal 
ism  was  his  profession,  but  the  "  New  South  " 
was  his  passion.  Of  this  subject  he  never  tired, 
and  he  discussed  it  "  with  a  brilliancy,  a  fervor, 
a  versatility,  and  a  fluency  marvelous  enough  to 
have  made  the  reputation  of  half  a  dozen  men." 
He  contributed  largely  to  the  higher  politics  of 
America  by  lifting  the  plane  of  sectional  debate 
to  more,  candid  and  dignified  interchanges  of 
opinion.  It  is  difficult  at  this  time  to  realize 
the  prejudice  and  suspicion  that  obtained  be 
tween  the  North  and  the  South  when  Grady  first 
spoke  in  New  York.  While  the  circumstances 
that  made  his  mediation  necessary  have  largely 
disappeared,  these  circumstances  must  be  borne 
in  mind  in  order  to  appreciate  both  the  form  and 
effect  of  his  speech.  As  Patrick  Henry  was  the 
war  orator  for  the  colonists,  and  Wendell  Phillips 
for  the  antislavery  agitators,  Grady  was  the 
orator  for  the  peacemakers.  In  this  work  of 
pacification,  his  speeches  necessarily  became 
largely  moral  appeals  rather  than  arguments ; 
hence  the  prevailing  emotional  element  which 
characterizes  his  style. 

And  of  the  New  South  that  Grady  foretold, 
what  a  prophecy  was  he !  Linked  to  the  past 
by  the  memory  of  a  father  killed  while  fighting 
for  the  Confederate  cause,  he  grappled  bravely 
with  war's  terrible  results,  and  turned  his  face 

5 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

toward  the  future  with  the  eye  of  a  statesman 
and  the  heart  of  a  patriot.  Idolized  by  the 
South,  honored  and  esteemed  by  the  nation,  with 
a  character  above  reproach,  a  soul  on  fire  with 
earnestness,  and  a  nature  peculiarly  tender  and 
lovable,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that,  except 
ing  our  martyred  Presidents,  the  death  of  no 
American  has  caused  such  universal  sorrow. 


6 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

The  following  speech,  which  first  brought  Mr.  Grady  national 
fame  as  an  orator,  was  delivered  at  a  banquet  of  the  New 
England  Society,  New  York  City,  December  21,  1886. 

"  THERE  was  a  South  of  slavery  and  secession 
—  that  South  is  dead.  There  is  a  South  of  union 
and  freedom  —  that  South,  thank  God,  is  living, 
breathing,  growing  every  hour."  These  words, 
delivered  from  the  immortal  lips  of  Benjamin  H. 
Hill,  at  Tammany  Hall,  in  1866,  true  then  and 
truer  now,  I  shall  make  my  text  to-night. 

Mr.  President  and  gentlemen :  Let  me  express 
to  you  my  appreciation  of  the  kindness  by  which 
I  am  permitted  to  address  you.  I  make  this 
abrupt  acknowledgment  advisedly,  for  I  feel  that 
if,  when  I  raise  my  provincial  voice  in  this  ancient 
and  august  presence,  it  could  find  courage  for  no 
more  than  the  opening  sentence,  it  would  be  well 
if  in  that  sentence  I  had  met  in  a  rough  sense  my 
obligation  as  a  guest,  and  had  perished,  so  to 
speak,  with  courtesy  on  my  lips  and  grace  in  my 
heart. 

Permitted,  through  your  kindness,  to  catch  my 
second  wind,  let  me  say  that  I  appreciate  the 
significance  of  being  the  first  Southerner  to  speak 

7 


1  ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

at  this  board,  which  bears  the  substance,  if  it 
surpasses  the  semblance,  of  original  New  England 
hospitality,  and  honors  the  sentiment  that  in 
turn  honors  you,  but  in  which  my  personality  is 
lost,  and  the  compliment  to  my  people  made  plain. 

I  bespeak  the  utmost  stretch  of  your  courtesy 
to-night.  I  am  not  troubled  about  those  from 
whom  I  come.  You  remember  the  man  whose 
wife  sent  him  to  a  neighbor  with  a  pitcher  of 
milk,  and  who,  tripping  on  the  top  step,  fell  with 
such  casual  interruptions  as  the  landings  afforded 
into  the  basement,  and,  while  picking  himself  up, 
had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  his  wife  call  out, 
«  John,  did  you  break  the  pitcher  ?  " 

"  No,  I  didn't,"  said  John,  «  but  I'll  be  dinged 
if  I  don't." 

So,  while  those  who  call  me  from  behind  may 
inspire  me  with  energy,  if  not  with  courage,  I 
ask  an  indulgent  hearing  from  you.  I  beg  that 
you  will  bring  your  full  faith  in  American  fair 
ness  and  frankness  to  judgment  upon  what  I 
shall  say.  There  was  an  old  preacher  once  who 
told  some  boys  of  the  Bible  lesson  he  was  going 
to  read  in  the  morning.  The  boys,  finding  the 
place,  glued  together  the  connecting  pages.  The 
next  morning  he  read  on  the  bottom  of  one  page, 
"  When  Noah  was  one  hundred  and  twenty  years 
old  he  took  unto  himself  a  wife,  who  was "  — 
then  turning  the  page  —  "140  cubits  long,  40 

8 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

cubits  wide,  built  of  gopher  wood,  and  covered 
with  pitch  inside  and  out."  He  was  naturally 
puzzled  at  this.  He  read  it  again,  verified  it,  and 
then  said :  "  My  friends,  this  is  the  first  time  I 
ever  met  this  in  the  Bible,  but  I  accept  this  as 
an  evidence  of  the  assertion  that  we  are  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made."  If  I  could  get  you  to 
hold  such  faith  to-night,  I  could  proceed  cheer 
fully  to  the  task  I  otherwise  approach  with  a 
sense  of  consecration. 

Pardon  me  one  word,  Mr.  President,  spoken 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting  into  the  volumes 
that  go  out  annually  freighted  with  the  rich  elo 
quence  of  your  speakers  —  the  fact  that  the  Cava 
lier  as  well  as  the  Puritan  was  on  the  continent 
in  its  early  days,  and  that  he  was  "  up  and  able 
to  be  about."  I  have  read  your  books  carefully, 
and  I  find  no  mention  of  this  fact,  which  seems 
to  me  an  important  one  for  preserving  a  sort  of 
historical  equilibrium,  if  for  nothing  else. 

Let  me  remind  you  that  the  Virginia  Cavalier 
first  challenged  France  on  the  continent — that 
Cavalier  John  Smith  gave  New  England  its  very 
name,  and  was  so  pleased  with  the  job  that  he 
has  been  handing  his  own  name  around  ever  since  ; 
and  that  while  Myles  Standish  was  cutting  off 
men's  ears  for  courting  a  girl  without  her  parents' 
consent,  and  forbade  men  to  kiss  their  wives  on 
Sunday,  the  Cavalier  was  courting  everything 

9 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

in  sight,  and  that  the  Almighty  had  vouchsafed 
great  increase  to  the  Cavalier  colonies,  the  huts 
in  the  wilderness  being  as  full  as  the  nests  in  the 
woods. 

But  having  incorporated  the  Cavalier  as  a  fact 
in  your  charming  little  books,  I  shall  let  him 
work  out  his  own  salvation,  as  he  has  always 
done,  with  engaging  gallantry,  and  we  will  hold 
no  controversy  as  to  his  merits.  Why  should 
we  ?  Neither  Puritan  nor  Cavalier  long  survived 
as  such.  The  virtues  and  good  traditions  of  both 
happily  still  live  for  the  inspiration  of  their  sons 
and  the  saving  of  the  old  fashion.  But  both  Pu 
ritan  and  Cavalier  were  lost  in  the  storm  of  the 
first  Revolution,  and  the  American  citizen,  sup 
planting  both  and  stronger  than  either,  took 
possession  of  the  Republic  bought  by  their  com 
mon  blood  and  fashioned  to  wisdom,  and  charged 
himself  with  teaching  men  government  and  es 
tablishing  the  voice  of  the  people  as  the  voice  of 
God. 

My  friends,  Dr.  Talmage  has  told  you  that 
the  typical  American  has  yet  to  come.  Let  me 
tell  you  that  he  has  already  come.  Great  types, 
like  valuable  plants,  are  slow  to  flower  and  fruit. 
But  from  the  union  of  these  colonists,  Puritans 
and  Cavaliers,  from  the  straightening  of  their 
purposes  and  the  crossing  of  their  blood,  slow 
perfecting  through  a  century,  came  he  who 

10 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

stands  as  the  first  typical  American,  the  first  who 
comprehended  within  himself  all  the  strength 
and  gentleness,  all  the  majesty  and  grace,  of  this 
Republic  —  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  was  the  sum 
of  Puritan  and  Cavalier,  for  in  his  ardent  nature 
were  fused  the  virtues  of  both,  and  in  the  depths 
of  his  great  soul  the  faults  of  both  were  lost. 
He  was  greater  than  Puritan,  greater  than  Cava 
lier,  in  that  he  was  American,  and  that  in  his 
honest  form  were  first  gathered  the  vast  and 
thrilling  forces  of  his  ideal  government,  charg 
ing  it  with  such  tremendous  meaning  and  ele 
vating  it  above  human  suffering,  that  martyrdom, 
though  infamously  aimed,  came  as  a  fitting  crown 
to  a  life  consecrated  from  the  cradle  to  human 
liberty.  Let  us,  each  cherishing  the  traditions 
and  honoring  his  fathers,  build  with  reverent 
hands  to  the  type  of  this  simple  but  sublime  life, 
in  which  all  types  are  honored,  and  in  our  com 
mon  glory  as  Americans  there  will  be  plenty  and 
to  spare  for  your  forefathers  and  for  mine. 

Dr.  Talmage  has  drawn  for  you,  with  a  mas 
ter's  hand,  the  picture  of  your  returning  armies. 
He  has  told  you  how,  in  the  pomp  and  circum 
stance  of  war,  they  came  back  to  you,  marching 
with  proud  and  victorious  tread,  reading  their 
glory  in  a  nation's  eyes!  Will  you  bear  with 
me  while  I  tell  you  of  another  army  that  sought 
its  home  at  the  close  of  the  late  war? — an  army 

11 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

that  marched  home  in  defeat  and  not  in  victory, 
in  pathos  and  not  in  splendor,  but  in  glory  that 
equaled  yours,  and  to  hearts  as  loving  as  ever 
welcomed  heroes  home  !  Let  me  picture  to  you 
the  footsore  Confederate  soldier,  as,  buttoning 
up  in  his  faded  gray  jacket  the  parole  which  was 
to  bear  testimony  to  his  children  of  his  fidelity 
and  faith,  he  turned  his  face  southward  from 
Appomattox  in  April,  1865.  Think  of  him  as, 
ragged,  half-starved,  heavy-hearted,  enfeebled  by 
want  and  wounds,  having  fought  to  exhaustion, 
he  surrenders  his  gun,  wrings  the  hands  of  his 
comrades  in  silence,  and  lifting  his  tear-stained 
and  pallid  face  for  the  last  time  to  the  graves 
that  dot  old  Virginia  hills,  pulls  his  gray  cap 
over  his  brow  and  begins  the  slow  and  painful 
journey. 

What  does  he  find  —  let  me  ask  you  who  went 
to  your  homes  eager  to  find,  in  the  welcome  you 
had  justly  earned,  full  payment  for  four  years' 
sacrifice  —  what  does  he  find  when,  having  fol 
lowed  the  battle-stained  cross  against  overwhelm 
ing  odds,  dreading  death  not  half  so  much  as 
surrender,  he  reaches  the  home  he  left  so  pros 
perous  and  beautiful?  He  finds  his  house  in 
ruins,  his  farm  devastated,  his  slaves  free,  his 
stock  killed,  his  barns  empty,  his  trade  destroyed, 
his  money  worthless,  his  social  system,  feudal  in 
its  magnificence,  swept  away,  his  people  without 

12 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

law  or  legal  status,  his  comrades  slain,  and  the 
burdens  of  others  heavy  on  his  shoulders. 
Crushed  by  defeat,  his  very  traditions  are  gone; 
without  money,  credit,  employment,  material,  or 
training ;  and  besides  all  this,  confronted  with  the 
gravest  problem  that  ever  met  human  intelli 
gence  —  the  establishment  of  a  status  for  the 
vast  body  of  his  liberated  slaves. 

What  does  he  do  —  this  hero  in  gray  with  a 
heart  of  gold?  Does  he  sit  down  in  sullenness 
and  despair?  Not  for  a  day.  Surely  God,  who 
had  stripped  him  of  his  prosperity,  inspired  him 
in  his  adversity.  As  ruin  was  never  before  so 
overwhelming,  never  was  restoration  swifter. 
The  soldier  stepped  from  the  trenches  into  the 
furrow ;  horses  that  had  charged  federal  guns 
marched  before  the  plow,  and  fields  that  ran  red 
with  human  blood  in  April  were  green  with  the 
harvest  in  June  ;  women  reared  in  luxury  cut 
up  their  dresses  and  made  breeches  for  their  hus 
bands,  and,  with  a  patience  and  heroism  that  fit 
women  always  as  a  garment,  gave  their  hands 
to  work.  There  was  little  bitterness  in  all  this. 
Cheerfulness  and  frankness  prevailed.  "Bill 
Arp"  struck  the  keynote  when  he  said,  "Well, 
I  killed  as  many  of  them  as  they  did  of  me,  and 
now  I'm  going  to  work."  So  did  the  soldier 
returning  home  after  defeat  and  roasting  some 
corn  on  the  roadside  who  made  the  remark  to 

13 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

his  comrades,  "  You  may  leave  the  South  if  you 
want  to,  but  I'm  going  to  Sandersville,  kiss  my 
wife,  and  raise  a  crop,  and  if  the  Yankees  fool 
with  me  any  more,  I'll  whip  'em  again." 

I  want  to  say  to  General  Sherman,  who  is 
considered  an  able  man  in  our  parts,  though 
some  people  think  he  is  a  kind  of  careless  man 
about  fire,  that  from  the  ashes  he  left  us  in  1864 
we  have  raised  a  brave  and  beautiful  city;  that 
somehow  or  other  we  have  caught  the  sunshine 
in  the  bricks  and  mortar  of  our  homes,  and  have 
builded  therein  not  one  ignoble  prejudice  or 
!  memory. 

But  what  is  the  sum  of  our  work  ?  We  have 
found  out  that  in  the  summing  up  the  free  negro 
counts  more  than  he  did  as  a  slave.  We  have 
planted  the  schoolhouse  on  the  hilltop  and  made 
it  free  to  white  and  black.  We  have  sown 
towns  and  cities  in  the  place  of  theories,  and  put 
business  above  politics.  We  have  challenged 
your  spinners  in  Massachusetts  and  your  iron- 
makers  in  Pennsylvania.  We  have  learned  that 
the  $400,000,000  annually  received  from  our  cot 
ton  crop  will  make  us  rich  when  the  supplies 
that  make  it  are  home-raised.  We  have  reduced 
the  commercial  rate  of  interest  from  24  to  6  per 
cent,  and  are  floating  4  per  cent  bonds.  We 
have  learned  that  one  Northern  immigrant  is 
worth  fifty  foreigners,  and  have  smoothed  the 

14 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

path  to  Southward,  wiped  out  the  place  where 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line  used  to  be,  and  hung  out 
the  latchstring  to  you  and  yours. 

We  have  reached  the  point  that  marks  perfect 
harmony  in  every  household,  when  the  husband 
confesses  that  the  pies  which  his  wife  cooks  are 
as  good  as  those  his  mother  used  to  bake ;  and 
we  admit  that  the  sun  shines  as  brightly  and  the 
moon  as  softly  as  it  did  before  the  war.  We 
have  established  thrift  in  city  and  country.  We 
have  fallen  in  love  with  work.  We  have  restored 
comfort  to  homes  from  which  culture  and  elegance 
never  departed.  We  have  let  economy  take  root 
and  spread  among  us  as  rank  as  the  crab-grass 
which  sprung  from  Sherman's  cavalry  camps, 
until  we  are  ready  to  lay  odds  on  the  Georgia 
Yankee  as  he  manufactures  relics  of  the  battle 
field  in  a  one-story  shanty  and  squeezes  pure 
olive  oil  out  of  his  cotton  seed,  against  any  down- 
easter  that  ever  swapped  wooden  nutmegs  for 
flannel  sausage  in  the  valleys  of  Vermont.  Above 
all,  we  know  that  we  have  achieved  in  these 
"  piping  times  of  peace  "  a  fuller  independence 
for  the  South  than  that  which  our  fathers  sought 
to  win  in  the  forum  by  their  eloquence  or  com 
pel  in  the  field  by  their  swords. 

It  is  a  rare  privilege,  sir,  to  have  had  part, 
however  humble,  in  this  work.  Never  was  nobler 
duty  confided  to  human  hands  than  the  uplifting 

15 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

and  upbuilding  of  the  prostrate  and  bleeding 
South  —  misguided,  perhaps,  but  beautiful  in  her 
suffering,  and  honest,  brave,  and  generous  always. 
In  the  record  of  her  social,  industrial,  and  polit 
ical  illustration  we  await  with  confidence  the 
verdict  of  the  world. 

But  what  of  the  negro?  Have  we  solved  the 
problem  he  presents  or  progressed  in  honor  and 
equity  toward  solution?  Let  the  record  speak  to 
the  point.  No  section  shows  a  more  prosperous 
laboring  population  than  the  negroes  of  the  South, 
none  in  fuller  sympathy  with  the  employing  and 
land-owning  class.  He  shares  our  school  fund, 
has  the  fullest  protection  of  our  laws,  and  the 
friendship  of  our  people.  Self-interest,  as  well  as 
honor,  demand  that  he  should  have  this.  Our 
future,  our  very  existence,  depend  upon  our  work 
ing  out  this  problem  in  full  and  exact  justice. 
We  understand  that  when  Lincoln  signed  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  your  victory  was  as 
sured,  for  he  then  committed  you  to  the  cause  of 
human  liberty,  against  which  the  arms  of  man 
cannot  prevail  —  while  those  of  our  statesmen 
who  trusted  to  make  slavery  the  corner  stone  of 
the  Confederacy  doomed  us  to  defeat  as  far  as 
they  could,  committing  us  to  a  cause  that  reason 
could  not  defend  or  the  sword  maintain  in  sight 
of  advancing  civilization. 

Had  Mr.  Toombs  said,  which  he  did  not  say, 
16 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

"  that  he  would  call  the  roll  of  his  slaves  at  the 
foot  of  Bunker  Hill,"  he  would  have  been  foolish, 
for  he  might  have  known  that  whenever  slavery 
became  entangled  in  war  it  must  perish,  and  that 
the  chattel  in  human  flesh  ended  forever  in  New 
England  when  your  fathers  —  not  to  be  blamed 
for  parting  with  what  didn't  pay  —  sold  their 
slaves  to  our  fathers  —  not  to  be  praised  for 
knowing  a  paying  thing  when  they  saw  it.  The 
relations  of  the  Southern  people  with  the  negro 
are  close  and  cordial.  We  remember  with  what 
fidelity  for  four  years  he  guarded  our  defenseless 
women  and  children,  whose  husbands  and  fathers  , 
were  fighting  against  his  freedom.  To  his  eternal 
credit  be  it  said  that  whenever  he  struck  a  blow 
for  his  own  liberty,  he  fought  in  open  battle,  and 
when  at  last  he  raised  his  black  and  humble 
hands  that  the  shackles  might  be  struck  off,  those 
hands  were  innocent  of  wrong  against  his  help 
less  charges,  and  worthy  to  be  taken  in  loving 
grasp  by  every  man  who  honors  loyalty  and  de 
votion.  Ruffians  have  maltreated  him,  rascals 
have  misled  him,  philanthropists  established  a 
bank  for  him,  but  the  South,  with  the  North, 
protests  against  injustice  to  this  simple  and  sin 
cere  people. 

To  liberty  and  enfranchisement  is  as  far  as 
law  can  carry  the  negro.     The  rest  must  be  left 
to  conscience  and  common  sense.     It  must  be 
c  17 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

left  to  those  among  whom  his  lot  is  cast,  with 
whom  he  is  indissolubly  connected,  and  whose 
prosperity  depends  upon  their  possessing  his  in 
telligent  sympathy  and  confidence.  Faith  has 
been  kept  with  him,  in  spite  of  calumnious  as 
sertions  to  the  contrary  by  those  who  assume  to 
speak  for  us  or  by  frank  opponents.  Faith  will 
be  kept  with  him  in  the  future,  if  the  South  holds 
her  reason  and  integrity. 

But  have  we  kept  faith  with  you  ?  In  the 
fullest  sense,  yes.  When  Lee  surrendered  —  I 
don't  say  when  Johnston  surrendered,  because  I 
understand  he  still  alludes  to  the  time  when  he 
met  General  Sherman  last  as  the  time  when  he 
determined  to  abandon  any  further  prosecution 
of  the  struggle  —  when  Lee  surrendered,  I  say, 
and  Johnston  quit,  the  South  became,  and  has 
since  been,  loyal  to  this  Union.  We  fought  hard 
enough  to  know  that  we  were  whipped,  and  in 
perfect  frankness  accept  as  final  the  arbitrament 
of  the  sword  to  which  we  had  appealed.  The 
South  found  her  jewel  in  the  toad's  head  of  de 
feat.  The  shackles  that  had  held  her  in  narrow 
] imitations  fell  forever  when  the  shackles  of  the 
negro  slave  were  broken.  Under  the  old  regime 
the  negroes  were  slaves  to  the  South ;  the  South 
was  a  slave  to  the  system.  The  old  plantation, 
with  its  simple  police  regulations  and  feudal 
habit,  was  the  only  type  possible  under  slavery. 

18 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Thus  was  gathered  in  the  hands  of  a  splendid 
and  chivalric  oligarchy  the  substance  that  should 
have  been  diffused  among  the  people,  as  the  rich 
blood,  under  certain  artificial  conditions,  is  gath 
ered  at  the  heart,  filling  that  with  affluent  rapture, 
but  leaving  the  body  chill  and  colorless. 

The  old  South  rested  everything  on  slavery 
and  agriculture,  unconscious  that  these  could 
neither  give  nor  maintain  healthy  growth.  The 
new  South  presents  a  perfect  democracy,  the 
oligarchs  leading  in  the  popular  movement ;  a 
social  system  compact  and  closely  knitted,  less 
splendid  on  the  surface,  but  stronger  at  the  core ; 
a  hundred  farms  for  every  plantation,  fifty  homes 
for  every  palace ;  and  a  diversified  industry  that 
meets  the  complex  needs  of  this  complex  age. 

The  new  South  is  enamored  of  her  new  work. 
Her  soul  is  stirred  with  the  breath  of  a  new  life. 
The  light  of  a  grander  day  is  falling  fair  on 
her  face.  She  is  thrilling  with  the  consciousness 
of  growing  power  and  prosperity.  As  she  stands 
upright,  full-statured  and  equal  among  the  people 
of  the  earth,  breathing  the  keen  air  and  looking 
out  upon  the  expanded  horizon,  she  understands 
that  her  emancipation  came  because,  through  the 
inscrutable  wisdom  of  God,  her  honest  purpose 
was  crossed  and  her  brave  armies  were  beaten. 

This  is  said  in  no  spirit  of  time-serving  or 
apology.  The  South  has  nothing  for  which  to 

19 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

apologize.  She  believes  that  the  late  struggle 
between  the  States  was  war  and  not  rebellion, 
revolution  and  not  conspiracy,  and  that  her  con 
victions  were  as  honest  as  yours.  I  should  be 
unjust  to  the  dauntless  spirit  of  the  South  and  to 
my  own  convictions  if  I  did  not  make  this  plain 
in  this  presence.  The  South  has  nothing  to  take 
back. 

In  my  native  town  of  Athens  is  a  monument 
that  crowns  its  central  hill  —  a  plain,  white 
shaft.  Deep  cut  into  its  shining  side  is  a  name 
dear  to  me  above  the  names  of  men  —  that  of 
a  brave  and  simple  man  who  died  in  brave  and 
simple  faith.  Not  for  all  the  glories  of  New 
England,  from  Plymouth  Rock  all  the  way,  would 
I  exchange  the  heritage  he  left  me  in  his  soldier's 
death.  To  the  foot  of  that  shaft  I  shall  send 
my  children's  children  to  reverence  him  who  en 
nobled  their  name  with  his  heroic  blood.  But, 
sir,  speaking  from  the  shadow  of  that  memory 
which  I  honor  as  I  do  nothing  else  on  earth,  I 
say  that  the  cause  in  which  he  suffered  and  for 
which  he  gave  his  life  was  adjudged  by  a  higher 
and  fuller  wisdom  than  his  or  mine,  and  I  am 
glad  that  the  omniscient  God  held  the  balance  of 
battle  in  His  Almighty  hand,  and  that  human 
slavery  was  swept  forever  from  American  soil  — 
that  the  American  Union  was  saved  from  the 
wreck  of  war. 

20 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

This  message,  Mr.  President,  comes  to  you 
from  consecrated  ground.  Every  foot  of  soil 
about  the  city  in  which  I  live  is  sacred  as  a 
battle  ground  of  the  Republic.  Every  hill  that  in 
vests  it  is  hallowed  to  you  by  the  blood  of  your 
brothers  who  died  for  your  victory,  and  doubly 
hallowed  to  us  by  the  blood  of  those  who  died 
hopeless,  but  undaunted,  in  defeat  —  sacred  soil 
to  all  of  us,  rich  with  memories  that  make  us 
purer  and  stronger  and  better,  silent  but  stanch 
witnesses  in  its  red  desolation  of  the  matchless 
valor  of  American  hearts  and  the  deathless  glory 
of  American  arms,  speaking  an  eloquent  witness 
in  its  white  peace  and  prosperity  to  the  indis 
soluble  union  of  American  States  and  the  im 
perishable  brotherhood  of  the  American  people. 

Now,  what  answer  has  New  England  to  this 
message  ?  Will  she  permit  the  prejudice  of  war 
to  remain  in  the  hearts  of  the  conquerors,  when 
it  has  died  in  the  hearts  of  the  conquered  ?  Will  I 
she  transmit  this  prejudice  to  the  next  generation, 
that  in  their  hearts,  which  never  felt  the  generous 
ardor  of  conflict,  it  may  perpetuate  itself  ?  Will 
she  withhold,  save  in  strained  courtesy,  the  hand 
which  straight  from  his  soldier's  heart  Grant 
offered  to  Lee  at  Appomattox  ?  Will  she  make 
the  vision  of  a  restored  and  happy  people,  which 
gathered  above  the  couch  of  your  dying  captain, 
filling  his  heart  with  grace,  touching  his  lips 

21 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

with  praise,  and  glorifying  his  path  to  the  grave 
—  will  she  make  this  vision,  on  which  the  last 
sigh  of  his  expiring  soul  breathed  a  benediction, 
a  cheat  and  delusion  ? 

If  she  does,  the  South,  never  abject  in  asking 
for  comradeship,  must  accept  with  dignity  its 
refusal;  but  if  she  does  not  refuse  to  accept  in 
frankness  and  sincerity  this  message  of  good  will 
and  friendship,  then  will  the  prophecy  of  Web 
ster,  delivered  in  this  very  society  forty  years 
ago  amid  tremendous  applause,  be  verified  in  its 
fullest  sense,  when  he  said  :  "  Standing  hand  to 
hand  and  clasping  hands,  we  should  remain  united 
as  we  have  been  for  sixty  years,  citizens  of  the 
same  country,  members  of  the  same  government, 
united,  all  united  now  and  united  forever.  There 
have  been  difficulties,  contentions,  and  controver 
sies,  but  I  tell  you  that  in  my  judgment, — 

" '  Those  opposed  eyes, 

Which,  like  the  meteors  of  a  troubled  heaven, 
All  of  one  nature,  of  one  substance  bred, 
Did  lately  meet  in  th'  intestine  shock, 
Shall  now,  in  mutual  well-beseeming  ranks, 
March  all  one  way/  " 


22 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

An  address  delivered  at  the  Dallas,  Texas,  State  Fair,  October 

26, 1887 

"  WHO  saves  his  country,  saves  all  things,  and 
all  things  saved  will  bless  him.  Who  lets  his 
country  die,  lets  all  things  die,  and  all  things 
dying  curse  him."  These  words  are  graven  on 
the  statue  of  Benjamin  H.  Hill  in  the  city  of 
Atlanta,  and  in  their  spirit  I  shall  speak  to  you 
to-day. 

Mr.  President  and  fellow-citizens:  I  salute 
the  first  city  of  the  grandest  State  of  the  greatest 
government  on  this  earth.  In  paying  earnest 
compliment  to  this  thriving  city  and  this  generous 
multitude,  I  need  not  cumber  speech  with  argu 
ment  or  statistics.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  my 
friends  and  myself  make  obeisance  this  morning 
to  the  chief  metropolis  of  the  State  of  Texas.  If 
it  but  holds  this  preeminence,  —  and  who  can 
doubt  in  this  auspicious  presence  that  it  will?  — 
the  uprising  tide  of  Texas's  prosperity  will  carry 
it  to  glories  unspeakable.  For  I  say  in  soberness, 
the  future  of  this  marvelous  and  amazing  empire, 
that  gives  broader  and  deeper  significance  to 
statehood  by  accepting  its  modest  naming,  the 

23 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

mind  of  man  can  neither  measure  nor  compre 
hend. 

I  shall  be  pardoned  for  resisting  the  inspiration 
of  this  presence  and  adhering  to-day  to  blunt 
and  vigorous  speech  —  for  there  are  times  when 
fine  words  are  paltry,  and  this  seems  to  me  to 
be  such  a  time.  So  I  shall  turn  away  from  the 
thunders  of  the  political  battle  upon  which  every 
American  hangs  intent,  and  repress  the  ardor 
that  at  this  time  rises  in  every  American  heart  — 
for  there  are  issues  that  strike  deeper  than  any 
political  theory  has  reached,  and  conditions  of 
which  partisanry  has  taken,  and  can  take,  but 
little  account.  Let  me,  therefore,  with  studied 
plainness,  and  with  such  precision  as  is  possible 
—  in  a  spirit  of  fraternity  that  is  broader  than 
party  limitations,  and  deeper  than  political 
motives  —  discuss  with  you  certain  problems 
upon  the  wise  and  prompt  solution  of  which  de 
pends  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  the  South. 

But  why  —  for  let  us  make  our  way  slowly — 
why  "the  South  "  ?  In  an  indivisible  union —  in 
a  Republic  against  the  integrity  of  which  sword 
shall  never  be  drawn  or  mortal  hand  uplifted, 
and  in  which  the  rich  blood  gathering  at  the  com 
mon  heart  is  sent  throbbing  into  every  part  of  the 
body  politic  —  why  is  one  section  held  separated 
from  the  rest  in  alien  consideration  ?  We  can 
understand  why  this  should  be  so  in  a  city  that 

24 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

has  a  community  of  local  interests ;  or  in  a  State 
still  clothed  in  that  sovereignty  of  which  the  de 
bates  of  peace  and  the  storm  of  war  has  not 
stripped  her.  But  why  should  a  number  of 
States,  stretching  from  Richmond  to  Galveston, 
bound  together  by  no  local  interests,  held  in  no 
autonomy,  be  thus  combined  and  drawn  to  a 
common  center  ?  That  man  would  be  absurd  who 
declaimed  in  Buffalo  against  the  wrongs  of  the 
Middle  States,  or  who  demanded  in  Chicago  a 
convention  for  the  West  to  consider  the  needs  of 
that  section. 

If,  then,  it  be  provincialism  that  holds  the 
South  together,  let  us  outgrow  it ;  if  it  be  sec 
tionalism,  let  us  root  it  out  of  our  hearts ;  but  if 
it  be  something  deeper  than  these  and  essential 
to  our  system,  let  us  declare  it  with  frankness, 
consider  it  with  respect,  defend  it  with  firmness, 
and  in  dignity  abide  its  consequence.  What  is  it 
that  holds  the  Southern  States — though  true 
in  thought  and  deed  to  the  Union  —  so  closely 
bound  in  sympathy  to-day  ?  For  a  century  these 
States  championed  a  governmental  theory,  but 
that,  having  triumphed  in  every  forum,  fell  at 
last  by  the  sword.  They  maintained  an  institu 
tion,  but  that,  having  been  administered  in  the 
fullest  wisdom  of  man,  fell  at  last  in  the  higher 
wisdom  of  God.  They  fought  a  war,  but  the 
prejudices  of  that  war  have  died,  its  sympathies 

25 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

have  broadened,  and  its  memories  are  already 
the  priceless  treasure  of  the  Republic  that  is  ce 
mented  forever  with  its  blood.  They  looked  out 
together  upon  the  ashes  of  their  homes  and  the 
desolation  of  their  fields,  but  out  of  pitiful  re 
source  they  have  fashioned  their  homes  anew, 
and  plenty  rides  on  the  springing  harvests.  In 
all  the  past  there  is  nothing  to  draw  them  into 
essential  or  lasting  alliance  —  nothing  in  all  that 
heroic  record  that  cannot  be  rendered  unfearing 
from  provincial  hands  into  the  keeping  of  Ameri 
can  history. 

But  the  future  holds  a  problem  in  solving 
which  the  South  must  stand  alone ;  in  dealing 
with  which  she  must  come  closer  together  than 
ambition  or  despair  have  driven  her ;  and  on  the 
outcome  of  which  her  very  existence  depends. 
This  problem  is  to  carry  within  her  body  politic 
two  separate  races,  and  nearly  equal  in  numbers. 
She  must  carry  these  races  in  peace,  for  dis 
cord  means  ruin.  She  must  carry  them  sepa 
rately,  for  assimilation  means  debasement.  She 
must  carry  them  in  equal  justice,  for  to  this 
she  is  pledged  in  honor  and  in  gratitude.  She 
must  carry  them  even  unto  the  end,  for  in  human 
probability  she  will  never  be  quit  of  either. 

This  burden  no  other  people  bears  to-day; 
on  none  hath  it  ever  rested.  Without  precedent 
or  companionship,  the  South  must  bear  this  prob- 

26 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

lem — the  awful  responsibility  of  which  should 
win  the  sympathy  of  all  human  kind,  and  the 
protecting  watchfulness  of  God  —  alone,  even 
unto  the  end.  Set  by  this  problem  apart  from 
all  other  peoples  of  the  earth,  and  her  unique 
position  emphasized  rather  than  relieved,  as  I 
shall  show  hereafter,  by  her  material  conditions, 
it  is  not  only  fit,  but  it  is  essential  that  she  should 
hold  her  brotherhood  unimpaired,  quicken  her 
sympathies,  and  in  the  lights  or  in  the  shadows 
of  this  surpassing  problem  work  out  her  own  sal 
vation  in  the  fear  of  God  —  but  of  God  alone. 

What  shall  the  South  do  to  be  saved  ?  Through 
what  paths  shall  she  reach  the  end?  Through 
what  travail,  or  what  splendors,  shall  she  give 
to  the  Union  this  section,  its  wealth  garnered, 
its  resources  utilized,  and  its  rehabilitation  com 
plete,  and  restore  to  the  world  this  problem 
solved  in  such  justice  as  the  finite  mind  can 
measure,  or  finite  hands  administer?  In  dealing 
with  this  I  shall  dwell  on  two  points:  first,  the 
duty  of  the  South  in  its  relation  to  the  race 
problem;  second,  the  duty  of  the  South  in  rela 
tion  to  its  no  less  unique  and  important  indus 
trial  problem. 

I  approach  this  discussion  with  a  sense  of  con 
secration.  I  beg  your  patient  and  cordial  sym 
pathy.  And  I  invoke  the  Almighty  God,  that 
having  showered  on  this  people  His  fullest  riches, 

27 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

has  put  their  hands  to  this  task,  that  He  will 
draw  near  unto  us,  as  He  drew  near  to  troubled 
Israel,  and  lead  us  in  the  ways  of  honor  and  up 
rightness  ;  even  through  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day, 
and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night. 

What  of  the  negro  ?  This  of  him.  I  want 
no  better  friend  than  the  black  boy  who  was 
raised  by  my  side,  and  who  is  now  trudging  pa 
tiently  with  downcast  eyes  and  shambling  figure 
through  his  lowly  way  in  life.  I  want  no  sweeter 
music  than  the  crooning  of  my  old  "mammy," 
now  dead  and  gone  to  rest,  as  I  heard  it  when 
she  held  me  in  her  loving  arms,  and  bending  her 
old  black  face  above  me  stole  the  cares  from  my 
brain,  and  led  me  smiling  into  sleep.  I  want 
no  truer  soul  than  that  which  moved  the  trusty 
slave,  who  for  four  years,  while  my  father  fought 
with  the  armies  that  barred  his  freedom,  slept 
every  night  at  my  mother's  chamber  door,  hold 
ing  her  and  her  children  as  safe  as  if  her  hus 
band  stood  guard,  and  ready  to  lay  down  his 
humble  life  on  her  threshold. 

History  has  no  parallel  to  the  faith  kept  by  the 
negro  in  the  South  during  tjie  war.  Often  five 
hundred  negroes  to  a  single  white  man,  and  yet 
through  these  dusky  throngs  the  women  and 
children  walked  in  safety,  and  the  unprotected 
homes  rested  in  peace.  Unmarshaled,  the  black 
battalions  moved  patiently  to  the  fields  in  the 

28 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

morning  to  feed  the  armies  their  idleness  would 
have  starved,  and  at  night  gathered  anxiously  at 
the  big  house  to  "hear  the  news  from  marster," 
though  conscious  that  his  victory  made  their 
chains  enduring.  Every  where  humble  and  kindly, 
the  bodyguard  of  the  helpless,  the  rough  com 
panion  of  the  little  ones,  the  observant  friend, 
the  silent  sentry  in  his  lowly  cabin,  the  shrewd 
counselor,  and,  when  the  dead  came  home,  a 
mourner  at  the  open  grave.  A  thousand  torches 
would  have  disbanded  every  Southern  army,  but 
not  one  was  lighted.  When  the  master,  going  to 
a  war  in  which  slavery  was  involved,  said  to  his 
slave,  "  I  leave  my  home  and  loved  ones  in  your 
charge,"  the  tenderness  between  man  and  master 
stood  disclosed.  And  when  the  slave  held  that 
charge  sacred  through  storm  and  temptation,  he 
gave  new  meaning  to  faith  and  loyalty.  I  rejoice 
that  when  freedom  came  to  him  after  years  of 
waiting,  it  was  all  the  sweeter  because  the  black 
hands  from  which  the  shackles  fell  were  stain 
less  of  a  single  crime  against  the  helpless  ones 
confided  to  his  care. 

From  this  root,  embedded  in  a  century  of  kind 
and  constant  companionship,  has  sprung  some 
foliage.  As  no  race  had  ever  lived  in  such  unre 
sisting  bondage,  none  was  ever  hurried  with  such 
swiftness  through  freedom  into  power.  Into 
hands  still  trembling  from  the  blow  that  broke 

29 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

the  shackles,  was  thrust  the  ballot.  In  less  than 
twelve  months  from  the  day  he  walked  down  the 
furrow  a  slave,  a  negro  dictated  in  legislative 
halls,  from  which  Davis  and  Calhoun  had  gone 
forth,  the  policy  of  twelve  commonwealths. 
When  his  late  master  protested  against  his  mis 
rule,  the  federal  drumbeat  rolled  around  his 
strongholds,  and  from  a  hedge  of  federal  bayonets 
he  grinned  in  good-natured  insolence.  From  the 
proven  incapacity  of  that  day  has  he  far  ad 
vanced  ?  Simple,  credulous,  impulsive,  easily  led 
and  too  often  easily  bought,  is  he  a  safer,  more 
intelligent  citizen  now  than  then  ?  Is  this  mass 
of  votes,  loosed  from  old  restraints,  inviting 
alliance  or  awaiting  opportunity,  less  menacing 
than  when  its  purpose  was  plain  and  its  way 
direct  ? 

My  countrymen,  right  here  the  South  must 
make  a  decision  on  which  very  much  depends. 
Many  wise  men  held  that  the  white  vote  of  the 
South  should  divide,  the  color  line  be  beaten 
down,  and  the  Southern  States  ranged  on  eco 
nomic  or  moral  questions  as  interest  or  belief 
demands.  I  am  compelled  to  dissent  from  this 
view.  The  worst  thing,  in  my  opinion,  that 
could  happen  is  that  the  white  people  of  the 
South  should  stand  in  opposing  factions,  with 
the  vast  mass  of  ignorant  or  purchasable  negro 
votes  between.  Consider  such  a  status.  If  the 

30 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

negroes  were  skillfully  led,  —  and  leaders  would  ] 
not  be  lacking,  —  it  would  give  them  the  balance  1 
of  power,  a  thing  not  to  be  considered.     If  their  1 
vote  was  not  compacted,  it  would  invite  the  de 
bauching  bid  of  factions,  and  drift  surely  to  that 
which  was  the  most  corrupt  and  cunning.     With 
the  shiftless  habit   and    irresolution    of   slavery 
days  still  possessing  him,  the  negro    voter  will 
not  in  this  generation,  adrift  from  war  issues, 
become  a  steadfast  partisan  through  conscience 
or  conviction.     In  every  community    there    are 
colored  men  who  redeem  their  race  from  this  re 
proach,  and  who  vote  under  reason.     Perhaps  in 
time  the  bulk  of  this  race  may  thus  adjust  itself. 
But,  through  what  long  and  monstrous  periods 
of   political    debauchery    this   status   would    be   ; 
reached,  no  tongue  can  tell. 

The  clear  and  unmistakable  domination  of  the  j 
white  race,  dominating  not  through  violence,  not  J 
through  party  alliance,  but  through  the  integrity' 
of  its  own  vote  and  the  largeness  of  its  sympathy; 
and  justice  through  which  it  shall  compel  the 
support  of  the  better  classes  of  the  colored  race 
—  that  is  the  hope  and  assurance  of  the  South. 
Otherwise,  the  negro  would  be  bandied  from 
one  faction  to  another.  His  credulity  would  be 
played  upon,  his  cupidity  tempted,  his  impulses 
misdirected,  his  passions  inflamed.  He  would 
be  forever  in  alliance  with  that  faction  which  was 

31 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

most  desperate  and  unscrupulous.  Such  a  state 
would  be  worse  than  reconstruction,  for  then  in 
telligence  was  banded,  and  its  speedy  triumph 
assured.  But  with  intelligence  and  property  di 
vided,  bidding  and  overbidding  for  place  and 
patronage,  irritation  increasing  with  each  con 
flict,  the  bitterness  and  desperation  seizing  every 
heart,  political  debauchery  deepening  as  each 
faction  staked  its  all  in  the  miserable  game  — 
there  would  be  no  end  to  this,  until  our  suf 
frage  was  hopelessly  sullied,  our  people  forever 
divided,  and  our  most  sacred  rights  surrendered. 
One  thing  further  should  be  said  in  perfect 
frankness.  Up  to  this  point  we  have  dealt  with 
ignorance  and  corruption,  but  beyond  this  point 
a  deeper  issue  confronts  us.  Ignorance  may 
struggle  to  enlightenment ;  out  of  corruption  may 
come  the  incorruptible.  God  speed  the  day  when 
—  every  true  man  will  work  and  pray  for  its 
coming  —  the  negro  must  be  led  to  know  and, 
through  sympathy,  to  confess  that  his  interests 
and  the  interests  of  the  people  of  the  South  are 
identical.  The  men  who,  from  afar  off,  view  this 
subject  through  the  cold  eye  of  speculation  or  see 
it  distorted  through  partisan  glasses,  insist  that, 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  negro  race  shall  be  in 
control  of  the  affairs  of  the  South.  We  have  no 
fears  of  this  ;  already  we  are  attracting  to  us  the 
best  elements  of  the  race,  and  as  we  proceed  our 

32 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

alliance  will  broaden ;  external  pressure  but  irri 
tates  and  impedes.  Those  who  would  put  the 
negro  race  in  supremacy  would  work  against  in- 
fallible  decree,  for  the  white  race  can  never  sub 
mit  to  its  domination,  because  the  white  race  is 
the  superior  race.  But  the  supremacy  of  the 
white  race  of  the  South  must  be  maintained  for 
ever,  and  the  domination  of  the  negro  race  re 
sisted  at  all  points  and  at  all  hazards,  because 
the  white  race  is  the  superior  race.  This  is  the  j 
declaration  of  no  new  truth.  It  has  abided  for 
ever  in  the  marrow  of  our  bones,  and  shall  run 
forever  with  the  blood  that  feeds  Anglo-Saxon 
hearts. 

In  political  compliance  the  South  has  evaded 
the  truth,  and  men  have  drifted  from  their  con 
victions.  But  we  cannot  escape  this  issue.  It 
faces  us  wherever  we  turn.  It  is  an  issue  that 
has  been  and  will  be.  The  races  and  tribes  of  j 
earth  are  of  divine  origin.  Behind  the  laws  of  J 
man  and  the  decrees  of  war,  stands  the  law  of 
God.  What  God  hath  separated  let  no  man  join 
together.  The  Indian,  the  Malay,  the  negro,  the 
Caucasian,  these  types  stand  as  markers  of  God's 
will.  Let  no  man  tinker  with  the  work  of  the 
Almighty.  Unity  of  civilization,  no  more  than 
unity  of  faith,  will  never  be  witnessed  on  earth. 
No  race  has  risen,  or  will  rise,  above  its  ordained 
place.  Here  is  the  pivotal  fact  of  this  great 
D  33 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

matter  —  two  races  are  made  equal  in  law,  and 
in  political  rights,  between  whom  the  caste  of 
race  has  set  an  impassable  gulf.  This  gulf  is 
bridged  by  a  statute,  and  the  races  are  urged  to 
cross  thereon.  This  cannot  be.  The  fiat  of  the 
Almighty  has  gone  forth,  and  in  eighteen  cen 
turies  of  history  it  is  written. 

We  would  escape  this  issue  if  we  could.  From 
the  depths  of  its  soul  the  South  invokes  from 
heaven  "peace  on  earth,  and  good  will  to  man." 
She  would  not,  if  she  could,  cast  this  race  back 
into  the  condition  from  which  it  was  righteously 
raised.  She  would  not  deny  its  smallest  or 
abridge  its  fullest  privilege.  Not  to  lift  this  bur 
den  forever  from  her  people  would  she  do  the 
least  of  these  things.  She  must  walk  through 
the  valley  of  the  shadow,  for  God  has  so  ordained. 
But  He  has  ordained  that  she  shall  walk  in  that 
integrity  of  race  that  was  created  in  His  wisdom 
and  has  been  perpetuated  in  His  strength.  Stand 
ing  in  the  presence  of  this  multitude,  sobered  with 
the  responsibility  of  the  message  I  deliver  to  the 
young  men  of  the  South,  I  declare  that  the  truth 
above  all  others  to  be  worn  unsullied  and  sacred 
in  your  hearts,  to  be  surrendered  to  no  force,  sold 
for  no  price,  compromised  in  no  necessity,  but 
cherished  and  defended  as  the  covenant  of  your 
prosperity,  and  the  pledge  of  peace  to  your  chil 
dren,  is  that  the  white  race  must  dominate  for- 

34 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

ever  in  the  South,  because  it  is  the  white  race, 
and  superior  to  that  race  by  which  its  supremacy 
is  threatened. 

It  is  a  race  issue.  Let  us  come  to  this  point, 
and  stand  here.  Here  the  air  is  pure  and  the 
light  is  clear,  and  here  honor  and  peace  abide. 
Juggling  and  evasion  deceive  not  a  man.  Com 
promise  and  subservience  have  carried  not  a 
point.  There  is  not  a  white  man,  North  or  South, 
who  does  not  feel  it  stir  in  the  gray  matter  of 
his  brain  and  throb  in  his  heart,  not  a  negro  who 
does  not  feel  its  power.  It  is  not  a  sectional 
issue.  It  speaks  in  Ohio  and  in  Georgia.  It 
speaks  wherever  the  Anglo-Saxon  touches  an 
alien  race.  It  has  just  spoken  in  universally 
approved  legislation  in  excluding  the  Chinaman 
from  our  gates,  not  for  his  ignorance,  vice,  or 
corruption,  but  because  he  sought  to  establish  an 
inferior  race  in  a  Republic  fashioned  in  the  wis 
dom  and  defended  by  the  blood  of  a  homogeneous 
people. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  blood  has  dominated  always 
and  everywhere.  It  fed  Alfred  when  he  wrote 
the  charter  of  English  liberty  ;  it  gathered  about 
Hampden  as  he  stood  beneath  the  oak ;  it  thun- 
deredMn  Cromwell's  veins  as  he  fought  his  king; 
it  humbled  Napoleon  at  Waterloo  ;  it  has  touched 
the  desert  and  jungle  with  undying  glory ;  it 
carried  the  drumbeat  of  England  around  the  world 

35 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

and  spread  on  every  continent  the  gospel  of  lib 
erty  and  of  God ;  it  established  this  Republic, 
carved  it  from  the  wilderness,  conquered  it  from 
the  Indians,  wrested  it  from  England,  and  at  last, 
stilling  its  own  tumult,  consecrated  it  forever  as 
the  home  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  theater  of 
his  transcending  achievement.  Never  one  foot 
of  it  can  be  surrendered,  while  that  blood  lives 
in  American  veins  and  feeds  American  hearts,  to 
the  domination  of  an  alien  and  inferior  race. 

And  yet  that  is  just  what  is  proposed.  Not 
in  twenty  years  have  we  seen  a  day  so  pregnant 
with  fate  to  this  section  as  the  6th  of  next 
November.  If  President  Cleveland  is  then  de 
feated,  which  God  forbid,  I  believe  these  States 
will  be  led  through  sorrows  compared  to  which 
the  woes  of  reconstruction  will  be  as  the  fading 
dews  of  morning  to  the  roaring  flood.  To  domi 
nate  these  States  through  the  colored  vote,  with 
such  aid  as  federal  patronage  may  debauch  or 
federal  power  determine,  and  thus  through  its 
chosen  instruments  perpetuate  its  rule,  is  in  my 
opinion  the  settled  purpose  of  the  Republican 
party.  I  am  appalled  when  I  measure  the  pas 
sion  in  which  this  negro  problem  is  judged  by 
the  leaders  of  the  party. 

Fifteen  years  ago  Vice  President  Wilson  said, 
—  and  I  honor  his  memory  as  that  of  a  coura 
geous  man,  —  "  We  shall  not  have  finished  with 

36 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

the  South  until  we  force  its  people  to  change 
their  thought  and  think  as  we  think."  I  repeat 
these  words,  for  I  heard  them  when  a  boy,  and 
they  fell  on  my  ears  as  the  knell  of  my  people's 
rights  —  "to  change  their  thought,  and  make 
them  think  as  we  think."  Not  enough  to  have 
conquered  our  armies,  to  have  decimated  our 
ranks,  to  have  desolated  our  fields  and  reduced 
us  to  poverty,  to  have  struck  the  ballot  from  our 
hands  and  enfranchised  our  slaves,  to  have  held 
us  prostrate  under  bayonets  while  the  insolent 
mocked  and  thieves  plundered;  but  their  very 
souls  must  be  rifled  of  their  faiths,  their  sacred 
traditions  cudgeled  from  memory,  and  their  im 
mortal  minds  beaten  into  subjection  until  thought 
had  lost  its  integrity  and  we  were  forced  "to 
think  as  they  think." 

And  just  now  General  Sherman  has  said,  and 
I  honor  him  as  a  soldier :  "  The  negro  must  be 
allowed  to  vote,  and  his  vote  must  be  counted ; 
otherwise,  so  sure  as  there  is  a  God  in  heaven, 
you  will  have  another  war,  more  cruel  than  the 
last,  when  the  torch  and  dagger  will  take  the 
place  of  the  muskets  of  well-ordered  battalions. 
Should  the  negro  strike  that  blow,  in  seeming 
justice,  there  will  be  millions  to  assist  them." 

And  this  General  took  Johnston's  sword  in 
surrender !  He  looked  upon  the  thin  and  ragged 
battalions  in  gray,  that  for  four  years  had  held 

37 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

his  teeming  and  heroic  legions  at  bay.  Facing 
them,  he  read  their  courage  in  their  depleted 
ranks  and  gave  them  a  soldier's  parole.  When 
he  found  it  in  his  heart  to  taunt  these  heroes  with 
this  threat,  why  —  careless  as  he  was  twenty 
years  ago  with  fire,  he  is  even  more  careless  now 
with  his  words.  If  we  could  hope  that  this  prob 
lem  would  be  settled  within  our  lives,  I  would  ap 
peal  from  neither  madness  nor  unmanliness.  But 
when  I  know  that,  strive  as  I  may,  I  must  at  last 
render  this  awful  heritage  into  the  untried  hands 
of  my  son,  already  dearer  to  me  than  my  life, 
and  that  he  must  in  turn  bequeath  it  unsolved  to 
his  children,  I  cry  out  against  the  inhumanity 
that  deepens  its  difficulties  with  this  incendiary 
threat  and  beclouds  its  real  issue  with  inflaming 
passion. 

This  problem  is  not  only  enduring,  but  it  is 
widening.  The  exclusion  of  the  Chinese  is  the 
first  step  in  the  revolution  that  shall  save  liberty 
and  law  and  religion  to  this  land,  and  in  peace 
and  order,  not  enforced  on  the  gallows  or  at  the 
bayonet's  end,  but  proceeding  from  the  heart  of 
an  harmonious  people,  shall  secure  in  the  enjoy 
ment  of  the  rights  and  the  control  of  this  Repub 
lic,  the  homogeneous  people  that  established  and 
has  maintained  it. 

The  next  step  will  be  taken  when  some  brave 
statesman,  looking  Demagogy  in  the  face,  shall 

38 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

move  to  call  to  the  stranger  at  our  gates,  "  Who 
comes  there  ?  "  admitting  every  man  who  seeks 
a  home  or  honors  our  institutions  and  whose 
habit  and  blood  will  run  with  the  native  current ; 
but  excluding  all  who  seek  to  plant  anarchy 
or  to  establish  alien  men  or  measures  on  our 
soil;  and  will  then  demand  that  the  standard 
of  our  citizenship  be  lifted  and  the  right  of 
acquiring  our  suffrage  be  abridged.  When  that 
day  comes,  and  God  speed  its  coming,  the  position 
of  the  South  will  be  fully  understood  and  every 
where  approved.  Until  then,  let  us  —  giving 
the  negro  every  right,  civil  and  political,  meas 
ured  in  that  fullness  the  strong  should  always 
accord  the  weak,  holding  him  in  closer  friend 
ship  and  sympathy  than  he  is  held  by  those 
who  would  crucify  us  for  his  sake,  realizing 
that  on  his  prosperity  ours  depends  —  let  us 
resolve  that  never  by  external  pressure,  or  in 
ternal  division,  shall  he  establish  domination, 
directly  or  indirectly,  over  that  race  that  every, 
where  has  maintained  its  supremacy.  Let  this 
resolution  be  cast  on  the  lines  of  equity  and  jus 
tice.  Let  it  be  the  pledge  of  honest,  safe,  and 
impartial  administration,  and  we  shall  command 
the  support  of  the  colored  race  itself,  more  de 
pendent  than  any  other  on  the  bounty  and  pro 
tection  of  government.  Let  us  be  wise  and 
patient,  and  we  shall  secure  through  its  acqui- 

39 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

escence  what  otherwise  we  should  win  through 
conflict  and  hold  in  insecurity. 

All  this  is  no  unkindness  to  the  negro,  but 
rather  that  he  may  be  led  in  equal  rights  and 
in  peace  to  his  uttermost  good.  Not  in  sec 
tionalism,  for  my  heart  beats  true  to  the  Union, 
to  the  glory  of  which  your  life  and  heart  is 
pledged.  Not  in  disregard  of  the  world's  opin 
ion,  for  to  render  back  this  problem  in  the 
world's  approval  is  the  sum  of  my  ambition  and 
the  height  of  human  achievement.  Not  in  re 
actionary  spirit,  but  rather  to  make  clear  that 
new  and  grander  way  up  which  the  South  is 
marching  to  higher  destiny,  and  on  which  I 
would  not  halt  her  for  all  the  spoils  that  have 
been  gathered  unto  parties  since  Catiline  con 
spired  and  Caesar  fought.  Not  in  passion,  my 
countrymen,  but  in  reason ;  not  in  narrowness, 
but  in  breadth ;  that  we  may  solve  this  prob 
lem  in  calmness  and  in  truth,  and  lifting  its 
shadows,  let  perpetual  sunshine  pour  down  on 
two  races,  walking  together  in  peace  and  content 
ment.  Then  shall  this  problem  have  proved  our 
blessing,  and  the  race  that  threatened  our  ruin 
work  our  salvation  as  it  fills  our  fields  with  the 
best  peasantry  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Then 
the  South,  putting  behind  her  all  the  achieve 
ments  of  her  past  —  and  in  war  and  in  peace 
they  beggar  eulogy  —  may  stand  upright  among 

40 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

the  nations  and  challenge  the  judgment  of  man 
and  the  approval  of  God,  in  having  worked  out 
in  their  sympathy,  and  in  His  guidance,  this  last 
and  surpassing  miracle  of  human  government. 

What  of  the  South's  industrial  problem  ? 
When  we  remember  that  amazement  followed 
the  payment  by  37,000,000  Frenchmen  of  a 
billion  dollars  indemnity  to  Germany,  that 
the  5,000,000  whites  of  the  South  rendered  to 
the  torch  and  sword  three  billions  of  property  — 
that  130,000,000  a  year,  or  $600,000,000  in  twenty 
years,  has  been  given  willingly  of  our  poverty 
as  pensions  for  Northern  soldiers,  the  wonder  is 
that  we  are  here  at  all. 

There  is  a  figure  with  which  history  has 
dealt  lightly,  but  that,  standing  pathetic  and 
heroic  in  the  genesis  of  our  new  growth,  has 
interested  me  greatly  —  our  soldier  farmer  of 
'65.  What  chance  had  he  for  the  future  as  he 
wandered  amid  his  empty  barns,  his  stock,  labor, 
and  implements  gone,  —  gathered  up  the  frag 
ments  of  his  wreck, — urging  kindly  his  bor 
rowed  mule,  paying  60  per  cent  for  all  that  he 
bought,  and  buying  all  on  credit,  —  his  crop 
mortgaged  before  it  was  planted,  his  children 
in  want,  his  neighborhood  in  chaos,  —  working 
under  new  conditions  and  retrieving  every  error 
by  a  costly  year,  plodding  all  day  down  the  fur 
row,  hopeless  and  adrift,  save  when  at  night  he 

41 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

went  back  to  his  broken  home,  where  his  wife, 
cheerful  even  then,  renewed  his  courage,  while 
she  ministered  to  him  in  loving  tenderness.  Who 
would  have  thought  as  during  those  lonely  and 
terrible  days  he  walked  behind  the  plow,  lock 
ing  the  sunshine  in  the  glory  of  his  harvest  and 
field,  —  no  friend  near  save  nature,  that  smiled  at 
his  earnest  touch,  and  God,  that  sent  him  the 
message  of  good  cheer  through  the  passing  breeze 
and  the  whispering  leaves,  —  that  he  would  in 
twenty  years,  having  carried  these  burdens  un 
complaining,  make  a  crop  of  1800,000,000  ?  Yet 
this  he  has  done,  and  from  his  bounty  the  South 
has  rebuilded  her  cities  and  recouped  her  losses. 
While  we  exult  in  his  splendid  achievement,  let 
us  take  account  of  his  standing. 

Whence  this  enormous  growth  ?  For  ten 
years  the  world  has  been  at  peace.  The  pioneer 
has  now  replaced  the  soldier.  Commerce  has 
whitened  new  seas,  and  the  merchant  has  occu 
pied  new  areas.  Steam  has  made  of  the  earth 
a  chessboard,  on  which  men  play  for  markets. 
Our  Western  wheat-grower  competes  in  London 
with  the  Russian  and  the  East  Indian.  The  Ohio 
wool-grower  watches  the  Australian  shepherd, 
and  the  bleat  of  the  now  historic  sheep  of  Ver 
mont  is  answered  from  the  steppes  of  Asia.  The 
herds  that  emerge  from  the  dust  of  your  amaz 
ing  prairies  might  hear  in  their  pauses  the  hoof- 

42 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

beats  of  antipodean  herds  marching  to  meet 
them.  Under  Holland's  dikes,  the  cheese  and 
butter  makers  fight  American  dairies.  The  hen 
cackles  around  the  world.  California  challenges 
vine-clad  France.  The  dark  continent  is  dis 
closed  through  meshes  of  light.  There  is  compe 
tition  everywhere.  The  husbandman,  driven  from 
his  market,  balances  price  against  starvation  and 
undercuts  his  rival.  This  conflict  often  runs 
to  panic,  and  profit  vanishes.  The  Iowa  farmer 
burning  his  corn  for  fuel  is  not  an  unusual  type. 
Amid  this  universal  conflict,  where  stands  the 
South  ?  While  the  producer  of  everything  we 
eat  or  wear,  in  every  land,  is  fighting  through 
glutted  markets  for  bare  existence,  what  of  the 
Southern  farmer  ?  In  his  industrial  as  in  his 
political  problem  he  is  set  apart  —  not  in  doubt, 
but  in  assured  independence.  Cotton  makes  him 
king.  Not  the  fleeces  that  Jason  sought  can 
rival  the  richness  of  this  plant,  as  it  unfurls  its 
banners  in  our  fields.  It  is  gold  from  the 
instant  it  puts  forth  its  tiny  shoot.  The  shower 
that  whispers  to  it  is  heard  around  the  world. 
The  trespass  of  a  worm  on  its  green  leaf 
means  more  to  England  than  the  advance  of 
the  Russians  on  her  Asiatic  outposts.  When  its 
fiber,  current  in  every  bank,  is  marketed,  it 
renders  back  to  the  South  $350,000,000  every 
year.  Its  seed  will  yield  $60,000,000  worth  of 

43 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

oil  to  the  press  and  $40,000,000  in  food  for  soil 
and  beast,  making  the  stupendous  total  of 
$450,000,000  annual  income  from  this  crop.  And 
now,  under  the  Tompkins  patent,  from  its  stalk 
newspaper  is  to  be  made  at  two  cents  per  pound. 
Edward  Atkinson  once  said,  "  If  New  England 
could  grow  the  cotton  plant,  without  lint,  it 
would  make  her  richest  crop ;  if  she  held  mo 
nopoly  of  cotton  lint  and  seed,  she  would  control 
the  commerce  of  the  world." 

But  is  our  monopoly,  threatened  from  Egypt, 
India,  and  Brazil,  sure  and  permanent  ?  Let  the 
record  answer.  In  '72  the  American  supply  of 
cotton  was  3,241,000  bales,  —  foreign  supply, 
3,036,000.  We  led  our  rivals  by  less  than  200,000 
bales.  This  year  the  American  supply  is  8,000,- 
000  bales  —  from  foreign  sources,  2,100,000  ex 
pressed  in  bales  of  400  pounds  each.  In  spite 
of  new  areas  elsewhere,  of  fuller  experience, 
of  better  transportation,  and  unlimited  money 
spent  in  experiment,  the  supply  of  foreign 
cotton  has  decreased  since  '72  nearly  1,000,000 
bales,  while  that  of  the  South  has  increased 
nearly  5,000,000.  Further  than  this,  since  1872 
population  in  Europe  has  increased  13  per  cent, 
and  cotton  consumption  in  Europe  has  increased 
50  per  cent.  Still  further,  since  1880  cotton 
consumption  in  Europe  has  increased  28  per  cent, 
wool  only  4  per  cent,  and  flax  has  decreased  11 

44 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

per  cent.  As  for  new  areas,  the  uttermost  mis 
sionary  woos  the  heathen  with  a  cotton  shirt  in 
one  hand  and  a  Bible  in  the  other,  and  no  sav 
age,  I  believe,  has  ever  been  converted  to  one 
without  adopting  the  other.  To  summarize : 
Our  American  fiber  has  increased  its  product 
nearly  threefold,  while  it  has  seen  the  product 
of  its  rival  decrease  one  third.  It  has  enlarged 
its  dominion  in  the  old  centers  of  population, 
supplanting  flax  and  wool,  and  it  peeps  from  the 
satchel  of  every  business  and  religious  evangelist 
that  trots  the  globe.  In  three  years  the  Amer 
ican  crop  has  increased  1,400,000  bales,  and  yet 
there  is  less  cotton  in  the  world  to-day  than  at 
any  time  for  twenty  years.  The  dominion  of 
our  king  is  established ;  this  princely  revenue 
assured,  not  for  a  year,  but  for  all  time.  It  is 
the  heritage  that  God  gave  us  when  he  arched 
our  skies,  established  our  mountains,  girt  us 
about  with  the  ocean,  tempered  the  sunshine,  and 
measured  the  rain  —  ours  and  our  children's 
forever. 

Not  alone  in  cotton,  but  in  iron,  does  the  South 
excel.  The  Hon.  Mr.  Norton,  who  honors  this 
platform  with  his  presence,  once  said  to  me,  "  An 
Englishman  of  the  highest  character  predicted 
that  the  Atlantic  will  be  whitened  within  our 
lives  with  sails  carrying  American  iron  and  coal 
to  England."  When  he  made  that  prediction,  the 

45 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

English  miners  were  exhausting  the  coal  in  long 
tunnels  above  which  the  ocean  thundered.  Hav 
ing  ores  and  coal  stored  in  exhaustless  quantity, 
in  such  richness  and  in  such  adjustment  that  iron 
can  be  made  and  manufacturing  done  cheaper 
than  elsewhere  on  this  continent,  is  to  now  com 
mand,  and  at  last  control,  the  world's  market  for 
iron.  The  South  now  sells  iron,  through  Pitts- 
burg,  in  New  York.  She  has  driven  Scotch  iron 
first  from  the  interior,  and  finally  from  American 
ports.  Within  our  lives  she  will  cross  the  Atlan 
tic,  and  fulfill  the  Englishman's  prophecy.  In 
1880  the  South  made  212,000  tons  of  iron.  In 
1887,  845,000  tons.  She  is  now  actually  building, 
or  has  finished  this  year,  furnaces  that  will  pro 
duce  more  than  her  entire  product  of  last  year. 
Birmingham  alone  will  produce  more  iron  in 
1889  than  the  entire  South  produced  in  1887. 

Our  coal  supply  is  exhaustless,  Texas  alone 
having  6000  square  miles.  In  marble  and  gran 
ite  we  have  no  rivals,  as  to  quantity  or  qual 
ity.  In  lumber  our  riches  are  even  vaster.  More 
than  fifty  per  cent  of  our  entire  area  is  in  forests, 
making  the  South  the  best  timbered  region  in 
the  world.  We  have  enough  merchantable  yel 
low  pine  to  bring,  in  money,  $2,500,000,000  —  a 
sum  the  vastness  of  which  can  only  be  understood 
when  I  say  it  nearly  equals  the  assessed  value  of 
the  entire  South,  including  cities,  forests,  farms, 

46 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

mines,  factories,  and  personal  property  of  every 
description  whatsoever.  Back  of  this  are  our 
forests  of  hard  woods  and  measureless  swamps 
of  cypress  and  gum.  Think  of  it !  In  cotton  a 
monopoly ;  in  iron  and  coal  establishing  a  swift 
mastery  ;  in  granite  and  marble  developing  equal 
advantage  and  resource ;  in  yellow  pine  and 
hard  woods  the  world's  treasury.  Surely  the 
basis  of  the  South's  wealth  and  power  is  laid  by 
the  hand  of  the  Almighty  God,  and  its  pros 
perity  has  been  established  by  divine  law  which 
works  in  eternal  justice  and  not  by  taxes  levied 
on  its  neighbors  through  human  statutes.  Pay 
ing  tribute  for  fifty  years  that  under  artificial 
conditions  other  sections  might  reach  a  prosperity 
impossible  under  natural  laws,  it  has  grown  apace 
—  and  its  growth  shall  endure  if  its  people  are 
ruled  by  two  maxims,  that  reach  deeper  than 
legislative  enactment,  and  the  operation  of  which 
cannot  be  limited  by  artificial  restraint  and  but 
little  hastened  by  artificial  stimulus. 

First :  No  one  crop  will  make  a  people  pros 
perous.  If  cotton  held  its  monopoly  under  con 
ditions  that  made  other  crops  impossible,  or  under 
allurements  that  made  other  crops  exceptional, 
its  dominion  would  be  despotism. 

Whenever  the  greed  for  a  money  crop  unbal 
ances  the  wisdom  of  husbandry,  the  money  crop 
is  a  curse.  When  it  stimulates  the  general  econ- 

47 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

omy  of  the  farm,  it  is  the  profit  of  farming.  In 
an  unprosperous  strip  of  Carolina,  when  asked 
the  cause  of  their  poverty,  the  people  say,  "  To 
bacco  —  for  it  is  our  only  crop."  In  Lancaster, 
Pa.,  the  richest  American  county  by  the  census, 
when  asked  the  cause  of  their  prosperity,  they 
say,  "  Tobacco  —  for  it  is  the  golden  crown  of 
a  diversified  agriculture."  The  soil  that  pro 
duces  cotton  invites  the  grains  and  grasses,  the 
orchard  and  the  vine.  Clover,  corn,  cotton,  wheat, 
and  barley  thrive  in  the  same  inclosure ;  the 
peach,  the  apple,  the  apricot,  and  the  Siberian 
crab  in  the  same  orchard.  Herds  and  flocks 
graze  ten  months  every  year  in  the  meadows 
over  which  winter  is  but  a  passing  breath,  and 
in  which  spring  and  autumn  meet  in  summer's 
heart.  Sugar  cane  and  oats,  rice  and  potatoes, 
are  extremes  that  come  together  under  our  skies. 
To  raise  cotton  and  send  its  princely  revenues  to 
the  West  for  supplies  and  to  the  East  for  usury, 
would  be  misfortune  if  soil  and  climate  forced 
such  a  curse.  When  both  invite  independence, 
to  remain  in  slavery  is  a  crime.  To  mortgage 
our  farms  in  Boston  for  money  with  which  to 
buy  meat  and  bread  from  Western  cribs  and 
smokehouses,  is  folly  unspeakable. 

I  rejoice  that  Texas  is  less  open  to  this  charge 
than  others  of  the  cotton  States.  With  her 
80,000,000  bushels  of  grain,  and  her  16,000,000 

48 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

head  of  stock,  she  is  rapidly  learning  that 
diversified  agriculture  means  prosperity.  Indeed, 
the  South  is  rapidly  learning  the  same  lesson ; 
and,  learned  through  years  of  debt  and  depend 
ence,  it  will  never  be  forgotten.  The  best  thing 
Georgia  has  done  in  twenty  years  was  to  raise 
her  oat  crop  in  one  season  from  2,000,000  to 
9,000,000  bushels,  without  losing  a  bale  of  her 
cotton.  It  is  more  for  the  South  that  she  has 
increased  her  crop  of  corn  —  that  best  of  grains, 
of  which  Samuel  J.  Tilden  said,  "  It  will  be  the 
staple  food  of  the  future,  and  men  will  be 
stronger  and  better  when  that  day  comes  "  —  by 
43,000,000  bushels  this  year,  than  to  have  won 
a  pivotal  battle  in  the  late  war.  In  this  one 
item  she  keeps  at  home  this  year  a  sum  equal 
to  the  entire  cotton  crop  of  my  State  that  last 
year  went  to  the  West. 

This  is  the  road  to  prosperity.  It  is  the  way 
to  manliness  and  sturdiness  of  character.  When 
every  farmer  in  the  South  shall  eat  bread  from 
his  own  fields  and  meat  from  his  owrn  pastures, 
and,  disturbed  by  no  creditor  and  enslaved  by 
no  debt,  shall  sit  among  his  teeming  gardens 
and  orchards  and  vineyards  and  dairies  and 
barnyards,  pitching  his  crops  in  his  own  wisdom 
and  growing  them  in  independence,  making 
cotton  his  clean  surplus,  and  selling  it  in  his 
own  time  and  in  his  chosen  market  and  not  at 
B  49 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

a  master's  bidding,  —  getting  his  pay  in  cash  and 
not  in  a  receipted  mortgage  that  discharges  his 
debt,  but  does  not  restore  his  freedom,  —  then 
shall  be  breaking  the  fullness  of  our  day. 

Great  is  King  Cotton  !  But  to  lie  at  his  feet 
while  the  usurer  and  grain  raiser  bind  us  in  sub 
jection,  is  to  invite  the  contempt  of  man  and  the 
reproach  of  God.  But  to  stand  up  before  him, 
and  amid  the  crops  and  smokehouses  wrest  from 
him  the  magna  charta  of  our  independence,  and 
to  establish  in  his  name  an  ample  and  diversified 
agriculture,  that  shall  honor  him  while  it  en 
riches  us,  —  this  is  to  carry  us  as  far  in  the  way 
of  happiness  and  independence  as  the  farmer, 
working  in  the  fullest  wisdom  and  in  the  richest 
field,  can  carry  any  people. 

But  agriculture  alone  —  no  matter  how  rich 
or  varied  its  resources  —  cannot  establish  or 
maintain  a  people's  prosperity.  There  is  a  lesson 
in  this  that  Texas  may  learn  with  profit.  No 
commonwealth  ever  came  to  greatness  by  pro 
ducing  raw  material.  Less  can  this  be  possible 
in  the  future  than  in  the  past.  The  Comstock 
lode  is  the  richest  spot  on  earth.  And  yet  the 
miners,  gasping  for  breath  fifteen  hundred  feet 
below  the  earth's  surface,  get  bare  existence  out 
of  the  splendor  they  dig  from  the  earth.  It  goes 
to  carry  the  commerce  and  uphold  the  industry 
of  distant  lands,  of  which  the  men  who  produce 

50 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

it  get  but  dim  report.  Hardly  more  is  the  South 
profited  when,  stripping  the  harvest  of  her  cotton 
fields  or  striking  her  teeming  hills  or  leveling 
her  superb  forests,  she  sends  her  raw  material 
to  augment  the  wealth  and  power  of  distant 
communities. 

Texas  produces  a  million  and  a  half  bales  of 
cotton,  which  yield  her  160,000,000.  That  cotton 
woven  into  common  goods  would  add  $75,000,000 
to  Texas's  income  from  this  crop,  and  employ 
220,000  operatives,  who  would  spend  within 
her  borders  more  than  130,000,000  in  wages. 
Massachusetts  manufactures  575,000  bales  of  cot 
ton,  for  which  she  pays  $31,000,000,  and  sells 
for  $72,000,000,  adding  a  value  nearly  equal  to 
Texas's  gross  revenue  from  cotton,  and  yet  Texas 
has  a  clean  advantage  for  manufacturing  this 
cotton  of  one  per  cent  a  pound  over  Massachusetts. 

The  little  village  of  Grand  Rapids  began 
manufacturing  furniture  simply  because  it  was 
set  in  a  timber  district.  It  is  now  a  great  city 
and  sells  $10,000,000  worth  of  furniture  every 
year,  in  making  which  12,500  men  are  employed, 
and  a  population  of  40,000  people  supported. 
The  best  pine  districts  of  the  world  are  in  east 
ern  Texas.  With  less  competition  and  wider 
markets  than  Grand  Rapids  has,  will  she  ship 
her  forests  at  prices  that  barely  support  the 
wood  chopper  and  sawyer,  to  be  returned  in  the 

51 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

making  of  which  great  cities  are  built  or  main 
tained  ?  When  her  farmers  and  herdsmen  draw 
from  her  cities  1126,000,000  as  the  price  of  her 
annual  produce,  shall  this  enormous  wealth  be 
scattered  through  distant  shops  and  factories, 
leaving  in  the  hands  of  Texas  no  more  than  the 
sustenance,  support,  and  the  narrow  brokerage 
between  buyer  and  seller  ?  As  one-crop  farming 
cannot  support  the  country,  neither  can  a  re 
source  of  commercial  exchange  support  a  city. 
Texas  wants  immigrants,  —  she  needs  them,  — 
for  if  every  human  being  in  Texas  were  placed 
at  equidistant  points  through  the  State,  no 
Texan  could  hear  the  sound  of  a  human  voice 
in  your  broad  areas. 

So  how  can  you  best  attract  immigration  ? 
By  furnishing  work  for  the  artisan  and  mechanic, 
if  you  meet  the  demand  of  your  population 
for  cheaper  and  essential  manufactured  articles. 
One  half  million  workers  would  be  needed  for 
this,  and  with  their  families  would  double  the 
population  of  your  State.  In  these  mechanics 
and  their  dependents,  farmers  would  find  a 
market  for  not  only  their  staple  crops,  but  for 
the  truck  that  they  now  despise  to  raise  or  sell, 
but  is  at  last  the  cream  of  the  farm.  Worcester 
County,  Mass.,  takes  $7,200,000  of  our  material 
and  turns  out  $87,000,000  of  products  every  year, 
paying  $20,000,000  in  wages. 

52 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

The  most  prosperous  section  of  this  world 
is  that  known  as  the  Middle  States  of  this 
Republic.  With  agriculture  and  manufactures 
in  the  balance,  and  their  shops  and  factories 
set  amid  rich  and  ample  acres,  the  result  is 
such  deep  and  diffuse  prosperity  as  no  other 
section  can  show.  Suppose  those  States  had  a 
monopoly  of  cotton  and  coal  so  disposed  as  to 
command  the  world's  markets  and  the  treasury 
of  the  world's  timber,  I  suppose  the  mind  is 
staggered  in  contemplating  the  majesty  of  the 
wealth  and  power  they  would  attain.  What 
have  they  that  the  South  lacks  ?  —  and  to  her 
these  things  were  added,  and  climate,  ampler 
acres,  and  rich  soil.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that 
three  fourths  of  the  population  and  manufacturing 
wealth  of  this  country  is  comprised  in  a  narrow 
strip  between  Iowa  and  Massachusetts,  compris 
ing  less  than  one  sixth  of  our  territory,  and  that 
this  strip  is  distant  from  the  source  of  raw 
materials  on  which  its  growth  is  based,  of  hard 
climate  and  in  a  large  part  of  sterile  soil.  Much 
of  this  forced  and  unnatural  development  is  due 
to  slavery,  which  for  a  century  fenced  enterprise 
and  capital  out  of  the  South.  Mr.  Thomas, 
who,  in  the  Lehigh  Valley,  owned  a  furnace  in 
1845  that  set  the  pattern  for  iron-making  in 
America,  had  at  that  time  bought  mines  and 
forests  where  Birmingham  now  stands.  Slavery 

53 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

forced  him  away.  He  settled  in  Pennsylvania. 
I  have  wondered  what  would  have  happened  if 
that  one  man  had  opened  his  iron  mines  in 
Alabama  and  set  his  furnaces  there  at  that  time. 
I  know  what  is  going  to  happen  since  he  has 
been  forced  to  come  to  Birmingham  and  put  up 
two  furnaces  nearly  forty  years  after  his  survey. 

Another  cause  that  has  prospered  New  Eng 
land  and  the  Middle  States  while  the  South  lan 
guished,  is  the  system  of  tariff  taxes  levied  on 
the  unmixed  agriculture  of  these  States  for  the 
protection  of  industries  to  our  neighbors  to  the 
North,  a  system  on  which  the  Hon.  Roger  Q. 
Mills  —  that  lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  —  has 
at  last  laid  his  mighty  paw  and  under  the  indig 
nant  touch  of  which  it  trembles  to  its  center. 
That  system  is  to  be  revised  and  its  duties  re 
duced,  as  we  all  agree  it  should  be,  though  I 
should  say  in  perfect  frankness  I  do  not  agree 
with  Mr.  Mills  in  it.  Let  us  hope  this  will  be 
done  with  care  and  industrious  patience.  Whether 
it  stands  or  falls,  the  South  has  entered  the  in 
dustrial  list  to  partake  of  its  bounty  if  it  stands, 
and  if  it  falls,  to  rely  on  the  favor  with  which 
nature  has  endowed  her,  and  from  this  immu 
table  advantage  to  fill  her  own  markets  and  then 
have  a  talk  with  the  world  at  large. 

With  amazing  rapidity  she  has  moved  away 
from  the  one-crop  idea  that  was  once  her  curse. 

54 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

In  1880  she  was  esteemed  prosperous.  Since 
that  time  she  added  393,000,000  bushels  to  her 
grain  crops,  and  182,000,000  head  to  her  live 
stock.  This  has  not  lost  one  bale  of  her  cotton 
crop,  which,  on  the  contrary,  has  increased  nearly 
200,000  bales.  With  equal  swiftness  has  she 
moved  away  from  the  folly  of  shipping  out  her 
ore  at  $2  a  ton  and  buying  it  back  in  implements 
at  from  $20  to  $100  per  ton ;  her  cotton  at  10 
cents  a  pound,  and  buying  it  back  in  cloth  at 
20  to  80  cents  a  pound  ;  her  timber  at  8  per  thou 
sand  and  buying  it  back  in  furniture  at  ten  to 
twenty  times  as  much.  In  the  past  eight  years 
1250,000,000  have  been  invested  in  new  shops 
and  factories  in  her  States ;  225,000  artisans  are 
now  working  that  eight  years  ago  were  idle  or 
worked  elsewhere,  and  these  added  $227,000,000 
to  the  value  of  her  raw  material  —  more  than 
half  the  value  of  her  cotton.  Add  to  this  the 
value  of  her  increased  grain  crops  and  stock,  and 
in  the  past  eight  years  she  has  grown  in  her  fields 
or  created  in  her  shops  manufactures  more  than 
the  value  of  her  cotton  crop.  The  incoming 
tide  has  begun  to  rise.  Every  train  brings  man 
ufacturers  from  the  East  and  West  seeking  to 
establish  themselves  or  their  sons  near  the  raw 
material  and  in  this  growing  market.  Let  the 
fullness  of  the  tide  roll  in. 

It  will  not  exhaust  our  materials,  nor  shall  we 
55 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

glut  our  markets.  When  the  growing  demand 
of  our  Southern  market,  feeding  on  its  own 
growth,  is  met,  we  shall  find  new  markets  for 
the  South.  Under  our  new  condition  many  in 
direct  laws  of  commerce  will  be  straightened. 
We  buy  from  Brazil  $50,000,000  worth  of  goods, 
and  sell  her  $8,500,000.  England  buys  only  $29,- 
000,000,  and  sells  her  $35,000,000.  Of  $65,000,- 
000  in  cotton  goods  bought  by  Central  and  South 
America,  over  $50,000,000  went  to  England.  Of 
$331,000,000  sent  abroad  by  the  southern  half  of 
our  hemisphere,  England  secures  over  half,  al 
though  we  buy  from  that  section  nearly  twice  as 
much  as  England.  Our  neighbors  to  the  south 
need  nearly  every  article  we  make;  we  need 
nearly  everything  they  produce.  Less  than  2500 
miles  of  road  must  be  built  to  bind  by  rail  the 
two  American  continents.  When  this  is  done,  and 
even  before,  we  shall  find  exhaustless  markets 
to  the  south.  Texas  shall  command,  as  she 
stands  in  the  van  of  this  new  movement,  its  rich 
est  rewards. 

The  South,  under  the  rapid  diversification  of 
crops  and  diversification  of  industries,  is  thrilling 
with  new  life.  As  this  new  prosperity  comes  to 
us,  it  will  bring  no  sweeter  thought  to  me,  and 
to  you,  my  countrymen,  I  am  sure,  than  that  it 
adds  not  only  to  the  comfort  and  happiness  of 
our  neighbors,  but  that  it  makes  broader  the 

56 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

glory,  and  deeper  the  majesty,  and  more  enduring 
the  strength,  of  the  Union  which  reigns  supreme 
in  our  hearts.  In  this  Republic  of  ours  is  lodged 
the  hope  of  free  government  on  earth.  Here  God 
has  rested  the  ark  of  his  covenant  with  the  sons 
of  men.  Let  us  —  once  estranged  and  thereby 
closer  bound  — let  us  soar  above  all  provincial 
pride  and  find  our  deeper  inspirations  in  gather 
ing  the  fullest  sheaves  into  the  harvest  and  stand 
ing  the  stanchest  and  most  devoted  of  its  sons 
as  it  lights  the  path  and  makes  clear  the  way 
through  which  all  the  people  of  this  earth  shall 
come  in  God's  appointed  time. 

A  few  words  to  the  young  men  of  Texas.  I 
am  glad  that  I  can  speak  to  them  at  all.  Men, 
especially  young  men,  look  back  for  their  inspira 
tions  to  what  is  best  in  their  traditions.  Ther 
mopylae  cast  Spartan  sentiment  in  heroic  mold 
and  sustained  Spartan  arms  for  more  than  a  cen 
tury.  Thermopylae  had  survivors  to  tell  the  story 
of  its  defeat.  The  Alamo  had  none.  Though 
voiceless,  it  shall  speak  from  its  dumb  walls.  Lib 
erty  cried  out  to  Texas,  as  God  called  from  the 
clouds  unto  Moses.  Bowie  and  Fannin,  though 
dead,  still  live.  Their  voices  rang  above  the  din 
of  Goliad  and  the  glory  of  San  Jacinto,  and  they 
marched  with  the  Texas  veterans  who  rejoiced 
at  the  birth  of  Texas  independence.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  the  Alamo  that  moved  above  the  Texas 

57 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

soldiers  as  they  charged  like  demigods  through 
a  thousand  battlefields,  and  it  is  the  spirit  of  the 
Alamo  that  whispers  from  their  graves  held  in 
every  State  of  the  Union,  ennobling  their  dust, 
their  soil,  that  was  crimsoned  with  their  blood. 

In  the  spirit  of  this  inspiration  and  in  the 
thrill  of  the  amazing  growth  that  surrounds  you, 
my  young  friends,  it  will  be  strange  if  the  young 
men  of  Texas  do  not  carry  the  lone  star  into  the 
heart  of  the  struggle.  The  South  needs  her  sons 
to-day  more  than  when  she  summoned  them  to 
the  forum  to  maintain  her  political  supremacy, 
more  than  when  the  bugle  called  them  to  the 
field  to  defend  issues  put  to  the  arbitrament  of 
the  sword.  Her  old  body  is  instinct  with  appeal, 
calling  on  us  to  come  and  give  her  fuller  inde 
pendence  than  she  has  ever  sought  in  field  or 
forum.  It  is  ours  to  show  that  as  she  prospered 
with  slaves  she  shall  prosper  still  more  with 
freemen  ;  ours  to  see  that  from  the  lists  she  en 
tered  in  poverty  she  shall  emerge  in  prosperity ; 
ours  to  carry  the  transcending  traditions  of  the 
old  South  from  which  none  of  us  can  in  honor  or 
in  reverence  depart,  unstained  and  unbroken  into 
the  new. 

Shall  we  fail?  Shall  the  blood  of  the  old 
South  —  the  best  strain  that  ever  uplifted  human 
endeavor  —  that  ran  like  water  at  duty's  call 
and  never  stained  where  it  touched  —  shall  this 

58 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

blood  that  pours  into  our  veins  through  a  cen 
tury  luminous  with  achievement,  for  the  first 
time  falter  and  be  driven  back  from  irresolute 
heart,  when  the  old  South,  that  left  us  a  better 
heritage  in  manliness  and  courage  than  in  broad 
and  rich  acres,  calls  us  to  settle  problems  ? 

A  soldier  lay  wounded  on  a  hard-fought  field; 
the  roar  of  the  battle  had  died  away,  and  he 
rested  in  the  deadly  stillness  of  its  aftermath. 
Not  a  sound  was  heard  as  he  lay  there,  sorely 
smitten  and  speechless,  but  the  shriek  of  wounded 
and  the  sigh  of  the  dying  soul,  as  it  escaped  from 
the  tumult  of  earth  into  the  unspeakable  peace 
of  the  stars.  Off  over  the  field  flickered  the 
lanterns  of  the  surgeons  with  the  litter  bearers, 
searching  that  they  might  take  away  those  whose 
lives  could  be  saved  and  leave  in  sorrow  those 
who  were  doomed  to  die  with  pleading  eyes 
through  the  darkness.  This  poor  soldier  watched, 
unable  to  turn  or  speak  as  the  lantern  drew  near. 
At  last  the  light  flashed  in  his  face,  and  the  sur 
geon,  with  kindly  face,  bent  over  him,  hesitated 
a  moment,  shook  his  head,  and  was  gone,  leaving 
the  poor  fellow  alone  with  death.  He  watched 
in  patient  agony  as  they  went  from  one  part  of 
the  field  to  another. 

As  they  came  back,  the  surgeon  bent  over  him 
again :  "  I  believe  if  this  poor  fellow  lives  to 
sundown  to-morrow,  he  will  get  well,"  and 

59 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

again  leaving  him,  not  to  death  but  with  hope ; 
all  night  long  these  words  fell  into  his  heart  as 
the  dew  fell  from  the  stars  upon  his  lips,  "  If 
he  but  lives  till  sundown,  he  will  get  well." 

He  turned  his  weary  head  to  the  east  and 
watched  for  the  coming  sun.  At  last  the  stars 
went  out,  the  east  trembled  with  radiance,  and 
the  sun,  slowly  lifting  above  the  horizon,  tinged 
his  pallid  face  with  flame.  He  watched  it  inch 
by  inch  as  it  climbed  slowly  up  the  heavens. 
He  thought  of  life,  its  hopes  and  ambitions,  its 
sweetness  and  its  raptures,  and  he  fortified  his 
soul  against  despair  until  the  sun  had  reached 
high  noon.  It  sloped  down  its  slow  descent, 
and  his  life  was  ebbing  away  and  his  heart  was 
faltering,  and  he  needed  stronger  stimulants  to 
make  him  stand  the  struggle  until  the  end  of  the 
day  had  come.  He  thought  of  his  far-off  home, 
the  blessed  house  resting  in  tranquil  peace  with 
the  roses  climbing  to  its  door,  and  the  trees 
whispering  to  its  windows  and  dozing  in  the 
sunshine,  the  orchard  and  the  little  brook  running 
like  a  silver  thread  through  the  forest. 

"  If  I  live  till  sundown,  I  will  see  it  again.  I 
will  walk  down  the  shady  lane  ;  I  will  open  the 
battered  gate,  and  the  mocking  bird  shall  call  to 
me  from  the  orchard,  and  I  will  drink  again  at 
the  old  mossy  spring." 

And  he  thought  of  the  wife  who  had  come 
60 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

from  the  neighboring  farmhouse  and  put  her 
hands  shyly  in  his,  and  brought  sweetness  to  his 
life  and  light  to  his  home. 

"  If  I  live  till  sundown,  I  shall  look  once  more 
into  her  deep  and  loving  eyes  and  press  her 
brown  head  once  more  to  my  aching  breast." 

And  he  thought  of  the  old  father,  patient  in 
prayer,  bending  lower  and  lower  every  day 
under  his  load  of  sorrow  and  old  age. 

"  If  I  but  live  till  sundown,  I  shall  see  him 
again  and  wind  my  strong  arm  about  his  feeble 
body,  and  his  hands  shall  rest  upon  my  head 
while  the  unspeakable  healing  of  his  blessing  falls 
into  my  heart." 

And  he  thought  of  the  little  children  that 
clambered  on  his  knees  and  tangled  their  little 
hands  into  his  heartstrings,  making  to  him  such 
music  as  the  world  shall  not  equal  or  heaven 
surpass. 

"  If  I  live  till  sundown,  they  shall  again  find  my 
parched  lips  with  their  warm  mouths,  and  their 
little  fingers  shall  run  once  more  over  my  face." 

And  he  then  thought  of  his  old  mother,  who 
gathered  these  children  about  her  and  breathed 
her  old  heart  afresh  in  their  brightness  and  at 
tuned  her  old  lips  anew  to  their  prattle,  that  she 
might  live  till  her  big  boy  came  home. 

"  If  I  live  till  sundown,  I  will  see  her  again, 
and  I  will  rest  my  head  at  my  old  place  on  her 

61 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

knees,  and  weep  away  all  memory  of  this  deso 
late  night."  And  the  Son  of  God,  who  died  for 
men,  bending  from  the  stars,  put  the  hand  that 
had  been  nailed  to  the  cross  on  the  ebbing  life 
and  held  on  the  stanch  until  the  sun  went  down 
and  the  stars  came  out  and  shone  down  in  the 
brave  man's  heart  and  blurred  in  his  glistening 
eyes,  and  the  lanterns  of  the  surgeons  came  and 
he  was  taken  from  death  to  life. 

The  world  is  a  battlefield  strewn  with  the 
wrecks  of  government  and  institutions,  of  theo 
ries  and  of  faiths,  that  have  gone  down  in  the 
ravage  of  years.  On  this  field  lies  the  South, 
sown  with  her  problems.  Upon  this  field  swing 
the  lanterns  of  God.  Amid  the  carnage  walks 
the  Great  Physician.  Over  the  South  he  bends. 
"  If  ye  but  live  until  to-morrow's  sundown,  ye 
shall  endure,  my  countrymen."  Let  us,  for  her 
sake,  turn  our  faces  to  the  east  and  watch  as  the 
soldier  watched  for  the  coming  sun.  Let  us 
stanch  her  wounds  and  hold  steadfast.  The 
sun  mounts  the  skies.  As  it  descends,  let  us 
minister  to  her  and  stand  constant  at  her  side 
for  the  sake  of  our  children  and  of  generations 
unborn  that  shall  suffer  if  she  fails.  And  when 
the  sun  has  gone  down  and  the  day  of  her  proba 
tion  has  ended  and  the  stars  have  rallied  her  heart, 
the  lanterns  shall  be  swung  over  the  field  and 
the  Great  Physician  shall  lead  her  up  from  trouble 

62 


THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

• 

into  content,  from  suffering  into  peace,  from 
death  to  life. 

Let  every  man  here  pledge  himself  in  this  high 
and  ardent  hour,  as  I  pledge  myself  and  the  boy 
that  shall  follow  me ;  every  man  himself  and  his 
son,  hand  to  hand  and  heart  to  heart,  that  in  death 
and  earnest  loyalty,  in  patient  painstaking  and 
care,  he  shall  watch  her  interest,  advance  her  for 
tune,  defend  her  fame,  and  guard  her  honor  as 
long  as  life  shall  last.  Every  man  in  the  sound  of 
my  voice,  under  the  deeper  consecration  he  offers 
to  the  Union,  will  consecrate  himself  to  the  South. 
Have  no  ambition  but  to  be  first  at  her  feet  and 
last  at  her  service,  —  no  hope  but,  after  a  long 
life  of  devotion,  to  sink  to  sleep  in  her  bosom, 
as  a  little  child  sleeps  at  his  mother's  breast  and 
rests  untroubled  in  the  light  of  her  smile. 

With  such  consecrated  service,  what  could  we 
not  accomplish ;  what  riches  we  should  gather 
for  her;  what  glory  and  prosperity  we  should 
render  to  the  Union ;  what  blessings  we  should 
gather  unto  the  universal  harvest  of  humanity! 
As  I  think  of  it,  a  vision  of  surpassing  beauty 
unfolds  to  my  eyes.  I  see  a  South,  a  home  of 
fifty  millions  of  people,  who  rise  up  every  day 
to  call  her  blessed ;  her  cities  vast  hives  of  in 
dustry  and  of  thrift ;  her  countrysides  the  treas 
ures  from  which  their  resources  are  drawn ;  her 
streams  vocal  with  whirring  spindles ;  her  val- 

63 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

leys  tranquil  in  the  white  and  gold  of  the  har 
vest  ;  her  mountains  showering  down  the  music 
of  bells,  as  her  slow-moving  flocks  and  herds  go 
forth  from  their  folds ;  her  rulers  honest  and  her 
people  loving,  and  her  homes  happy  and  their 
hearthstones  bright,  and  their  waters  still,  and 
their  pastures  green,  and  her  conscience  clear; 
her  wealth  diffused  and  poorhouses  empty,  her 
churches  earnest  and  all  creeds  lost  in  the  gospel. 
Peace  and  sobriety  walking  hand  in  hand  through 
her  borders ;  honor  in  her  homes ;  uprightness  in 
her  midst ;  plenty  in  her  fields ;  straight  and 
simple  faith  in  the  hearts  of  her  sons  and  daugh 
ters  ;  her  two  races  walking  together  in  peace 
and  contentment ;  sunshine  everywhere  and  all 
the  time,  and  night  falling  on  her  gently  as  from 
the  wings  of  the  unseen  dove. 

All  this,  my  country,  and  more  can  we  do  for 
you.  As  I  look  the  vision  grows,  the  splendor 
deepens,  the  horizon  falls  back,  the  skies  open 
their  everlasting  gates,  and  the  glory  of  the  Al 
mighty  God  streams  through  as  He  looks  down 
on  His  people  who  have  given  themselves  unto 
Him,  and  leads  them  from  one  triumph  to  an 
other  until  they  have  reached  a  glory  unspeak 
able,  and  the  whirling  stars,  as  in  their  courses 
through  Arcturus  they  run  to  the  milky  way, 
shall  not  look  down  on  a  better  people  or  a  hap 
pier  land. 

64 


THE   "SOLID   SOUTH" 

On  Thanksgiving  Day,  1887,  at  the  Augusta  Exposition, 
Mr.  Grady  delivered  the  following  address. 

"  When  my  eyes  for  the  last  time  behold  the  sun  in  the 
heavens,  may  they  rest  upon  the  glorious  ensign  of  this 
Republic,  still  full  high  advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies 
streaming  in  original  luster,  not  a  star  obscured  or  a  stripe 
effaced,  but  everywhere  blazing  in  characters  of  living 
light  all  over  its  ample  folds  as  they  wave  over  land  and 
sea,  and  in  every  wind  under  heaven,  that  sentiment  dear 
to  every  American  heart,  —  Liberty  and  union  now  and 
forever,  one  and  inseparable ! " 

These  words  of  Daniel  Webster,  whose  brain 
was  the  temple  of  wisdom  and  whose  soul  the 
temple  of  liberty,  inspire  my  heart  as  I  speak  to 
you  to-day. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen :  This  day  is  auspicious. 
Set  apart  by  governor  and  president  for  univer 
sal  thanksgiving,  our  grateful  hearts  confirm  the 
consecration.  Though  we  have  not  been  per 
mitted  to  parade  our  democratic  roosters  in  jubi 
lant  print,  we  may  now  lead  them  from  their 
innocuous  desuetude,  and  making  them  the  basis 
of  this  day's  feast,  gather  about  them  a  company 
that  in  cordial  grace  shall  be  excelled  by  none  — 
not  even  that  which  invests  the  republican  turkey, 
p  65 


ORATIONS  AND^  SPEECHES 

whose  steaming  thighs  shall  be  slipped  to-day  in 
Indianapolis,  and  attacking  them  with  an  appe 
tite  that  comes  from  abounding  health,  consign 
them  to  that  digestion  that  waits  on  a  conscience 
void  of  offense. 

We  give  thanks  to-day  that  the  Lord  God  Al 
mighty,  having  led  us  from  desolation  into  plenty, 
from  poverty  into  substance,  from  passion  into 
reason,  and  from  estrangement  into  love  —  hav 
ing  brought  the  harvests  from  the  ashes,  and 
raised  us  homes  from  our  ruins,  and  touched  our 
scarred  land  all  over  with  beauty  and  with  peace 
—  permits  us  to  assemble  here  to-day  and  rejoice 
amid  the  garnered  heaps  of  our  treasure.  Your 
visitors  give  thanks  because,  coming  to  a  city 
that  from  deep  disaster  has  risen  with  energy 
and  courage  unequaled,  and  witnessing  an  expo 
sition  that  in  the  sweep  of  its  mighty  arms  and 
the  splendor  of  its  gathered  riches  surpasses  all 
we  have  attempted,  they  find  all  sense  of  rivalry 
blotted  out  in  wondering  admiration,  and  from 
hearts  that  know  not  envy  or  criticism,  bid  you 
Godspeed  to  even  higher  achievement,  and  to 
full  and  swift  harvesting  of  the  prosperity  to 
gain  which  you  have  builded  so  bravely  and  so 
wisely. 

I  am  thankful,  if  you  will  pardon  this  personal 
digression,  because  I  now  meet  face  to  face,  and 
can  render  service  to  a  people  whose  generous 

66 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

words  on  a  late  occasion  touched  my  heart  more 
deeply  than  I  shall  attempt  here  to  express.  I 
simply  say  to  you  now,  and  I  would  that  my 
voice  could  reach  every  man  in  Georgia  to  whom 
I  am  in  like  indebted,  that  your  kindness  left  no 
room  for  resentment  or  regret ;  but  a  heart  filled 
with  gratitude  and  love  steadier  in  its  resolution 
to  deserve  the  approval  you  so  unstintingly  gave, 
and  more  deeply  consecrated  to  the  service  of 
the  people,  that  in  giving  me  their  love  have 
given  all  that  I  have  dared  to  hope  for,  and  more 
than  I  had  dared  to  ask.  I  know  not  what  the 
future  may  hold  for  the  life  that  recent  events 
have  jostled  from  its  accustomed  path.  It  would 
be  affectation  to  say  that  I  am  careless  —  for, 
in  touching  it  with  your  loving  confidence,  you 
have  kindled  inspirations  that,  cherished  without 
guile,  may  be  confessed  in  frankness.  But  if  it 
be  given  to  man  to  read  the  human  heart,  and 
plumb  the  quicksands  of  human  ambition,  I  know 
that  I  speak  the  truth  when  I  say  that  if  ever  I 
hold  in  my  grasp  any  honor,  in  the  winning  or 
wearing  of  which  my  State  is  disadvantaged,  and 
my  hand  refuses  to  surrender  it,  I  pray  God  that 
in  remembrance  of  this  hour  He  will  strike  it 
from  me  forever ;  and  if  my  ambitious  heart  re 
bels,  that  He  will  lead  it,  even  through  sorrow 
and  humiliation,  to  know  that  unworthy  laurels 
will  fade  on  the  brow,  and  that  no  honor  can  en- 

67 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

noble,  no  triumph  advance,  and  no  victory  satisfy 
that  is  not  won  and  worn  in  the  weal  of  the 
people  and  the  prosperity  of  the  State. 

It  gives  us  pleasure  to  meet  to-day  our  neigh 
bors  from  Carolina,  and  by  the  banks  of  this 
river,  more  bond  than  boundary,  give  them  cor 
dial  welcome  to  Georgia.  The  people  of  these 
States,  sir,  are  ancient  and  honorable  friends. 
When  the  infant  colony  that  settled  Georgia 
landed  from  its  long  voyage  it  was  the  hands  of 
Carolinians  that  helped  them  ashore,  and  Caroli 
na's  hospitality  that  gave  them  food  and  shelter. 
A  banquet  was  served  at  Beaufort,  the  details  of 
which  proved  our  ancestors  to  have  been  doughty 
trencher-men,  and  at  which  we  are  not  surprised 
to  learn  a  goodly  quantity  of  most  excellent  wine 
was  served,  nor  to  learn  —  for  scribes  extenuated 
then  as  now  —  that,  though  the  affair  was  con 
ducted  in  the  most  agreeable  manner,  no  one  be 
came  intoxicated.  When  the  Georgians  took  up 
their  march  to  Savannah,  they  carried  with  them 
herds  from  the  Carolinians'  folds,  and  food  from 
their  granaries,  and  an  offer  from  Mr.  Whitaker 
—  blessed  be  his  memory!  —  of  a  silver  spoon 
for  the  first  male  child  born  on  Georgia  soil ;  the 
first  instance,  I  believe,  of  a  bounty  offered  or 
protection  guaranteed  to  an  infant  industry  on 
this  continent.  When  they  settled,  it  was  Caro 
lina  gentlemen  with  their  servants  that  builded 

68 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

the  huts  and  sheltered  them,  and  Carolina  cap 
tains  with  their  picket  men  that  guarded  them 
from  the  Indians.  As  from  your  slender  and 
pitiful  store  you  gave  them  bountifully  to  us, 
we  invite  you  to-day  to  share  with  us  our  plenty 
and  rejoice  with  us  that  what  you  planted  in 
neighborly  kindness  hath  grown  into  such  great 
ness. 

I  am  stirred  with  the  profoundest  emotion 
when  I  reflect  upon  what  the  peoples  of  these  two 
States  have  endured  together.  Shoulder  to  shoul 
der  they  have  fought  through  two  revolutions. 
Side  by  side  they  have  fallen  on  the  field  of  battle, 
and,  brothers  even  in  death,  have  rested  in  com 
mon  graves.  Hand  clasped  in  hand,  they  enjoyed 
victory  together,  and  together  reaped  in  honor 
and  dignity  the  fruits  of  their  triumph.  Heart 
locked  in  heart,  they  have  stood  undaunted  in 
the  desolation  of  defeat  and,  fortified  by  unfail 
ing  comradeship,  have  wrought  gladness  and 
peace  from  the  tumult  and  bitterness  of  despair. 
Of  them  it  may  be  truly  said,  they  have  known 
no  rivalry  save  that  emulation  which  inspires 
each,  and  embitters  neither.  If  we  match  your 
Calhoun,  one  of  that  trinity  that  hath  most  been 
and  shall  not  be  equaled  in  political  record,  with 
our  Stephens,  who  was  as  acute  in  expounding, 
and  as  devoted  in  defending  the  Constitution  as 
he ;  your  Hayne,  who  maintained  himself  val- 

69 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

iantly  against  the  great  mastodon  in  American 
politics,  with  our  Hill  (would  that  he  might  be 
given  back  to  us  to-day),  who  took  the  ablest 
debater  of  the  age  by  the  throat  and  shook  him 
until  his  eager  tongue  was  stilled  and  the  lips 
that  had  slandered  the  South  were  livid  in  shame 
and  confusion  ;  if  against  McDuffie,  eloquent  and 
immortal  tribune,  we  put  our  Toombs,  the  Mira- 
beau  of  his  day,  surpassing  the  Frenchman  in 
eloquence,  and  stainless  of  his  crimes ;  if  against 
Legare,  both  scholar  and  statesman,  we  put  our 
Wilde,  not  surpassed  as  either;  if  we  proffer 
Lanier,  Barick,  and  Harris,  when  the  praises  of 
Sims,  and  Hayne,  and  Timrod  are  sung,  it  is  only 
because  we  rejoice  in  the  strength  of  each  which 
has  honored  both,  and  glorified  our  great  Republic. 
Let  the  glory  of  our  past  history  incite  us  to  the 
future ;  let  the  trials  we  have  endured  nerve  us 
for  trials  yet  to  come ;  and  let  Georgia  and  Caro 
lina,  that  in  prosperity  united,  in  adversity  have 
not  been  divided,  strike  hands  here  to-day  in  a 
new  compact  that  shall  hold  them  bound  together 
in  comradeship  and  love  as  long  as  the  Savannah, 
laying  its  lips  on  the  cheeks  of  either,  runs  down 
to  the  sea. 

The  South  is  now  confronted  by  two  dangers : 
first,  that  by  remaining  solid  it  will  force  a  per 
manent  sectional  alignment,  under  which,  being 
in  minority,  it  has  nothing  to  gain  and  every- 

70 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

thing  to  lose;  second,  that  by  dividing  it  will 
debauch  its  political  system,  destroy  the  de 
fenses  of  its  social  integrity,  and  put  the  balance 
of  power  in  the  hands  of  an  ignorant  and  dan 
gerous  class.  Let  us  discuss  these  dangers  for  a 
moment. 

As  to  the  first.  I  do  not  doubt  that  every 
day  the  South  remains  solid,  the  drift  towards 
a  solid  North  is  deepening.  The  South  is  solid 
now  in  a  sense  not  dreamed  of  in  antebellum 
days.  Then  we  divided  on  every  question  save 
one,  that  of  preserving  equal  representation  in 
the  Senate.  Clay  championed  the  protective 
tariff.  Jackson  flew  at  Calhoun's  throat  when 
Carolina  threatened  to  nullify.  Polk,  of  Ten 
nessee,  was  made  President  over  Clay  of  Ken 
tucky.  In  1852  Pierce  received  the  vote  of 
twenty-seven  States  out  of  thirty-one,  though 
this  period  marked  the  height  of  slavery  disturb 
ance.  The  South  was  solid  then  on  one  thing 
alone.  On  all  other  questions  national  suffrage 
knew  no  sectional  lines.  To-day  the  South  is  a 
mass  of  States  merged  into  one;  every  issue 
fused  in  the  ardor  of  one  great  question,  and  our 
153  electoral  votes  hurled  as  a  rifle  ball  into  the 
electoral  college.  The  tendency  of  this  must  be 
to  solidify  the  North.  Indeed,  this  is  already 
being  done.  Seymour  and  Blair,  in  1868,  on  a 
platform  declaring  the  amendments  null  and 

71 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

void,  were  beaten  in  the  North  by  Grant,  the 
hero  of  the  war,  by  less  than  100,000  votes.  Mr. 
Harrison,  twenty  years  later,  beat  Cleveland 
with  a  flawless  record  and  a  careful  platform, 
over  450,000  votes  in  the  Northern  States.  The 
solid  South  invites  the  solid  North.  From  this 
status  the  South  has  little  to  hope.  The  North 
is  already  in  the  majority.  More  than  five 
million  immigrants  have  poured  into  her  States 
in  the  past  ten  years,  and  will  be  declared  in  the 
next  census.  Four  new  States  will  give  her 
eight  new  senators  and  twelve  electoral  votes. 
In  the  South  but  one  State  has  kept  pace  with 
the  West,  —  and  that  one,  Texas,  has  largely 
gained  at  the  expense  of  the  Atlantic  States. 
The  South  had  38  per  cent  of  the  electoral 
vote  in  1880.  It  is  doubtful  if  she  will  have 
over  25  per  cent  in  1890.  To  remain  solid, 
therefore,  is  to  incur  the  danger  of  being  placed 
in  perpetual  minority,  and  practically  shut  out 
from  participation  in  the  government,  into 
which  Georgia  and  Massachusetts  came  as 
equals  —  that  was  fashioned  in  their  common 
wisdom,  defended  in  their  common  blood, 
and  bought  of  their  common  treasure. 

But  what  of  the  other  danger?  Can  we  risk 
that  to  avoid  the  first  ?  I  am  not  sure  we  can 
not.  The  very  worst  thing  that  could  happen  to 
the  South  is  to  have  her  white  vote  divided  into 

72 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

factions,  and  each  faction  bidding  for  the  negro 
who  holds  the  balance  of  power.  What  is  this 
negro  vote  ?  In  every  Southern  State  it  is  consid 
erable,  and  I  fear  it  is  increasing.  It  is  alien, 
being  separated  by  radical  differences  that  are 
deep  and  permanent.  It  is  ignorant  —  easily  de 
luded  or  betrayed.  It  is  impulsive  —  lashed  by 
a  word  into  violence.  It  is  purchasable,  having 
the  incentive  of  poverty  and  cupidity,  and  the 
restraint  of  neither  pride  nor  conviction.  It  can 
never  be  merged  through  logical  or  orderly  cur 
rents  into  either  of  two  parties,  if  two  should 
present  themselves.  We  cannot  be  rid  of  it. 
There  it  is,  a  vast  mass  of  impulsive,  ignorant, 
and  purchasable  votes.  With  no  factions  be 
tween  which  to  swing  it  has  no  play  or  disloca 
tion  ;  but  thrown  from  one  faction  to  another  it 
is  the  loosed  cannon  on  the  storm-tossed  ship. 
There  is  no  community  that  would  deliberately 
tempt  this  danger;  no  social  or  political  fabric 
that  could  stand  its  strain.  The  Tweed  ring, 
backed  by  a  similar  and  less  irresponsible  follow 
ing  than  a  shrewd  clique  could  rally  and  control 
in  every  Southern  State,  and  daring  less  of  plun 
der  and  insolence  than  that  following  would 
sanction  or  support,  blotted  out  party  lines  in 
New  York,  and  made  its  intelligence  and  in 
tegrity  as  solid  as  the  South  ever  was.  Party 
lines  were  promptly  recast  because  New  York 

73 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

had  to  deal  with  the  vicious,  who,  once  punished, 
may  be  trusted  to  sulk  in  quiet  while  their 
wounds  heal.  We  deal  with  the  ignorant  that, 
scourged  from  power  to-day,  may  be  deluded  to 
morrow  into  assaulting  the  very  position  from 
which  they  have  been  lashed.  Never  did  robbers 
find  followers  more  to  their  mind  than  the  eman 
cipated  slaves  of  reconstruction  days.  Ignorant 
and  confiding,  they  could  be  committed  to  any 
excess,  led  to  any  outrage.  Deep  as  was  the 
degradation  to  which  these  sovereign  States  were 
carried,  and  heavy  as  is  the  burden  they  left  on 
this  impoverished  people,  it  was  only  when  the 
white  race,  rallying  from  the  graves  of  its  dead 
and  the  ashes  of  its  homes,  closed  its  decimated 
ranks,  and  fronting  federal  bayonets  and  defying 
federal  power,  stood  like  a  stone  wall  before  the 
uttermost  temples  of  its  liberty  and  credit,  and 
the  hideous  drama  closed,  that  the  miserable 
assault  was  checked. 

Shall  those  ranks  be  broken  while  the  danger 
still  threatens  ?  Let  the  whites  divide,  what 
happens  ?  Here  is  this  dangerous  and  alien  in 
fluence  that  holds  the  balance  of  power.  It  can 
not  be  won  by  argument,  for  it  is  without 
information,  understanding,  or  traditions  —  hence 
without  convictions.  It  must  be  bought  by  race 
privileges  granted  as  such,  or  by  money  paid  out 
right.  Let  us  follow  this  in  its  twofold  aspect. 

74 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

One  faction  gives  the  negro  certain  privileges 
and  wins.  The  other  offers  more.  The  first 
bids  under,  and  so  the  sickening  work  goes  on 
until  the  barriers  that  now  protect  the  social  in 
tegrity  and  peace  of  both  races  are  swept  away. 
The  negro  gains  nothing,  for  he  secures  these 
spoils  and  privileges  not  by  deserving  them,  or 
qualifying  himself  for  them,  but  as  the  plunder 
of  an  irritating  struggle  in  which  he  loses  that 
largeness  of  sympathy  and  tolerance  that  is  at  last 
essential  to  his  well-being  and  advancement.  The 
other  aspect  is  as  bad.  One  side  puts  up  five 
thousand  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  the  negro 
vote  and  wins.  The  other,  declining  at  first  to 
corrupt  the  suffrage,  but  realizing  at  last  that  the 
administration  on  which  his  life  and  property 
depends  is  at  stake,  doubles  this,  and  so  the 
debauching  deepens  until  at  last  such  enormous 
sums  are  spent  that  they  must  be  recouped  from 
the  public  treasuries.  Good  men,  disgusted,  go  to 
the  rear.  The  shrewd  and  unscrupulous  are  put 
to  the  front,  and  the  negro,  carrying  with  him  the 
balance  of  power,  falls  at  last  into  the  grasp  of 
the  faction  which  is  most  cunning  and  conscience 
less.  National  parties,  finding  here  their  cheap 
est  market  and  widest  field,  will  pour  millions 
into  the  South,  adding  to  the  corruption  funds  of 
municipal  and  State  factions  until  the  ballot  box 
will  be  hopelessly  debauched,  all  the  approaches 

75 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

thereto  corrupt,  and  all  the  results  therefrom 
tainted. 

I  understand  perfectly  that  this  is  not  the  larg 
est  view  of  this  question  to  take.  The  larger  in 
terests  of  this  section  and  of  the  Union  do  not 
rest  here.  I  deplore  this  fact.  I  would  that  the 
South,  fettered  by  no  circumstances  and  embar 
rassed  by  no  problem,  could  take  her  place  by 
the  side  of  her  sister  States,  making  alliance  as 
her  interest  or  patriotism  suggested. 

Let  me  say  here  that  I  yield  to  no  man  in  my 
love  for  this  Union.  I  was  taught  from  my 
cradle  to  love  it,  and  my  father,  loving  it  to  the 
last,  nevertheless  gave  his  life  for  Georgia  when 
she  asked  it  at  his  hands.  Loving  the  Union  as 
he  did,  yet  would  I  do  unto  Georgia  even  as  he 
did.  I  said  once  in  New  York,  and  I  repeat  it 
here,  honoring  his  memory  as  I  do  nothing  on 
this  earth,  I  still  thank  God  that  the  American 
conflict  was  adjudged  by  a  higher  wisdom  than 
his  or  mine,  that  the  honest  purposes  of  the 
South  were  crossed,  her  brave  armies  beaten,  and 
the  American  Union  saved  from  the  storm  of 
war.  I  love  this  Union  because  I  am  an  Ameri 
can  citizen.  I  love  it  because  it  stands  in  the 
light  while  other  nations  are  groping  in  the  dark. 
I  love  it  because  here,  in  this  Republic  of  a  homo 
geneous  people,  must  be  worked  out  the  great 
problems  that  perplex  the  world  and  established 

76 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

the  axioms  that  must  uplift  and  regenerate 
humanity.  I  love  it  because  it  is  my  country, 
and  my  State  stood  by  when  its  flag  was  once 
unfurled,  and  uplifted  her  stainless  sword,  and 
pledged  "  her  life,  her  property,  and  her  sacred 
honor,"  and  when  the  last  star  glittered  from  the 
silken  folds,  and  with  her  precious  blood  wrote 
her  loyalty  in  its  crimson  bars.  I  love  it  because 
I  know  that  its  flag,  fluttering  from  the  misty 
heights  of  the  future,  followed  by  a  devoted 
people  once  estranged  and  thereby  closer  bound, 
shall  blaze  out  the  way,  and  make  clear  the 
path  up  which  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  shall 
come  in  God's  appointed  time. 

I  know  the  ideal  status  is  that  every  State 
should  vote  without  regard  to  sectional  lines. 
The  reconciliation  of  the  people  will  never  be 
complete  until  Iowa  and  Georgia,  Texas  and 
Massachusetts,  may  stand  side  by  side  without 
surprise.  I  would  to  God  that  status  could  be 
reached  !  If  any  man  can  define  a  path  on  which 
the  whites  of  the  South,  though  divided,  can 
walk  in  honor  and  peace,  I  shall  take  that  path, 
though  I  walk  down  it  alone  —  for  at  the  end  of 
that  path,  and  nowhere  else,  lies  the  full  eman 
cipation  of  my  section  and  the  full  restoration 
of  this  Union. 

But  it  cannot  be.  When  the  negro  was  enfran 
chised,  the  South  was  condemned  to  solidity  as 

7T 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

surely  as  self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  na 
ture.  A  State  here  or  there  may  drift  away,  but 
it  will  come  back  assuredly  —  and  come  through 
such  travail,  and  bearing  such  burden,  as  neither 
war  nor  pestilence  can  bring.  This  problem  is 
not  of  our  seeking.  It  was  thrust  upon  us  not 
in  the  orderly  unfolding  of  a  preordained  plan, 
but  in  hot  impulse  and  passion,  against  the  judg 
ment  of  the  world  and  the  lessons  of  history,  and 
to  the  peril  of  popular  government,  which  rests 
at  last  on  a  pure  and  unsullied  suffrage  as  a  build 
ing  rests  on  its  corner  stone.  If  it  be  urged  that 
it  was  the  inexorable  result  of  our  course  in  1860, 
we  reply  that  we  took  that  course  in  deliberation, 
maintained  it  in  sincerity,  sealed  it  with  the 
blood  of  our  best  and  bravest  —  and  we  accept 
without  complaint,  and  abide  in  dignity,  its  di 
rect  and  ultimate  results,  and  shall  hold  it  to  be, 
in  spite  of  defeat,  forever  honorable  and  sacred. 
This  much  I  add.  No  king  that  ever  sat  on  a 
throne,  though  backed  by  autocratic  power,  would 
have  dared  to  subject  his  kingdom  to  the  strain, 
and  his  people  to  the  burden  that  the  North  put 
on  the  prostrate,  impoverished,  and  helpless  South 
when  it  enfranchised  the  body  of  our  late  slaves. 
We  would  not  undo  this  if  we  could.  We  know 
that  this  step,  though  taken  in  haste,  shall  never 
be  retraced.  Posterity  will  judge  of  the  wis 
dom  and  patriotism  in  which  it  was  ordered, 

78 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

and  the  order  and  equity  in  which  it  was  worked 
out. 

To  that  judgment  we  appeal  with  confidence. 
From  that  judgment  Mr.  Elaine  has  already  ap 
pealed  by  shrewdly  urging  in  his  written  history, 
that  the  North  did  not  intend  to  enfranchise  the 
negro,  but  was  forced  to  do  it  by  the  stubborn 
attitude  of  the  South.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is 
our  problem  now,  and  with  resolute  hands  and 
unfailing  hearts  we  must  carry  it  to  the  end.  It 
dominates,  and  will  dominate,  all  other  issues 
with  us.  Political  spoils  are  not  to  be  considered. 
The  administration  of  our  affairs  is  secondary, 
and  patronage  is  less.  Economic  issues  are  as 
naught,  and  even  great  moral  reforms  must  wait 
on  the  settlement  of  this  question.  To  quarrel 
over  other  issues  while  this  is  impending  is  to 
imitate  the  mother  quail  that  thrums  the  leaves 
afar  from  her  nest,  or  recall  the  finesse  of  the 
Spartan  boy  who  smiled  in  his  mother's  face 
while  he  hid  the  fox  that  was  gnawing  at  his 
vitals. 

What,  then,  is  the  duty  of  the  South  ?  Simply 
this :  to  maintain  the  political  as  well  as  the 
social  integrity  of  her  white  race,  and  to  appeal 
to  the  world  for  patience  and  justice.  Let  us 
show  that  it  is  not  sectional  prejudice,  but  a  sec 
tional  problem,  that  keeps  us  compacted  ;  that  it 
is  not  the  hope  of  dominion  or  power,  but  an 

79 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

abiding  necessity  —  not  spoils  or  patronage,  but 
plain  self-preservation,  that  holds  the  white  race 
together  in  the  South.  Let  us  make  this  so  plain 
that  a  community  anywhere,  searching  its  own 
heart,  would  say,  "  The  necessity  that  binds  our 
brothers  in  the  South  would  bind  us  as  closely 
were  the  necessity  here."  Let  us  invite  immi 
grants  and  meet  them  with  such  cordial  welcome 
that  they  will  abide  with  us  in  brotherhood,  and 
so  enlarge  the  body  of  intelligence  and  integrity, 
that,  divided,  it  may  carry  the  burden  of  ignorance 
without  danger.  Let  us  be  loyal  to  the  Union, 
and  not  only  loyal,  but  loving.  Let  the  Republic 
know  that  in  peace  it  hath  nowhere  better  citi 
zens,  nor  in  war  braver  soldiers,  than  in  these 
States.  Though  set  apart  by  this  problem  which 
God  permits  to  rest  upon  us,  and  which  therefore 
is  right,  let  us  garner  our  sheaves  gladly  into  the 
harvest  of  the  Union,  and  find  joy  in  our  work 
and  progress,  because  it  makes  broader  the  glory 
and  deeper  the  majesty  of  this  Republic  that  is 
cemented  with  our  blood.  Let  us  love  the  flag 
that  waved  over  Marion  and  Jasper,  that  waves 
over  us,  and  which  when  we  are  gathered  to  our 
fathers  shall  be  a  guarantee  of  liberty  and  pros 
perity  to  our  children,  and  our  children's  children, 
and  know  that  what  we  do  in  honor  shall  deepen, 
and  what  we  do  in  dishonor  shall  dim,  the  luster 
of  its  fixed  and  glittering  stars. 

80 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

As  for  the  negro,  let  us  impress  upon  him  what 
he  already  knows,  that  his  best  friends  are  the 
people  among  whom  he  lives,  whose  interests  are 
one  with  his,  and  whose  prosperity  depends  on 
his  perfect  contentment.  Let  us  give  him  his 
uttermost  rights,  and  measure  out  justice  to  him 
in  that  fullness  the  strong  should  always  give 
to  the  weak.  Let  us  educate  him  that  he  may 
be  a  better,  a  broader,  and  more  enlightened  man. 
Let  us  lead  him  in  steadfast  ways  of  citizenship, 
that  he  may  not  longer  be  the  sport  of  the  thought 
less,  and  the  prey  of  the  unscrupulous.  Let  us 
inspire  him  to  follow  the  example  of  the  worthy 
and  upright  of  his  race,  who  may  be  found  in 
every  community,  and  who  increase  steadily  in 
numbers  and  influence.  Let  us  strike  hands  with 
him  as  friends  —  and  as  in  slavery  we  led  him 
to  heights  which  his  race  in  Africa  had  never 
reached,  so  in  freedom  let  us  lead  him  to  a  pros 
perity  of  which  his  friends  in  the  North  have  not 
dreamed.  Let  us  make  him  know  that  he,  de 
pending  more  than  any  other  on  the  protection 
and  bounty  of  government,  shall  find  in  alliance 
with  the  best  elements  of  the  whites  the  pledge 
of  safe  and  impartial  administration.  And  let 
us  remember  this  —  that  whatever  wrong  we  put 
on  him  shall  return  to  punish  us.  Whatever  we 
take  from  him  in  violence,  that  is  unworthy  and 
shall  not  endure.  What  we  steal  from  him  in 

81 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

fraud,  that  is  worse.  But  what  we  win  from 
him  in  sympathy  and  affection,  what  we  gain  in 
his  confiding  alliance  and  confirm  in  his  awaken 
ing  judgment,  that  is  precious  and  shall  endure 
—  and  out  of  it  shall  come  healing  and  peace. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  the  North  on  this  issue? 
Two  propositions  appear  to  be  universally  de 
clared  by  the  Republicans.  First,  that  the  negro 
vote  of  the  South  is  suppressed  by  violence,  or 
miscounted  by  fraud.  Second,  that  it  shall  be 
freely  cast  and  fairly  counted.  While  Republi 
cans  agree  on  these  declarations,  there  are  those 
who  hold  them  sincerely,  but  would  be  glad  to 
see  the  first  disapproved,  and  the  second  thereby 
wiped  out  —  and  those  who  hold  them  in  malig 
nity,  and  who  will  maintain  the  first  that  they 
may  justify  the  storm  that  lies  hid  in  the  second. 

Let  us  send  to-day  a  few  words  to  the  fair- 
minded  Republicans  of  the  North.  Here  is  a  fun 
damental  assertion  —  the  negroes  of  the  South 
can  never  be  kept  in  antagonism  with  their  white 
neighbors,  for  the  intimacy  and  friendliness  of 
the  relation  forbids.  This  friendliness,  the  most 
important  factor  of  the  problem,  —  the  saving 
factor  now  as  always,  —  the  North  has  never,  and 
it  appears  will  never,  take  account  of.  It  ex 
plains  that  otherwise  inexplicable  thing  —  the 
fidelity  and  loyalty  of  the  negro  during  the  war 
to  the  women  and  children  left  in  his  care.  Had 

82 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  portrayed  the  habit  rather 
than  the  exception  of  slavery,  the  return  of  the 
Confederate  armies  could  not  have  stayed  the  hor 
rors  of  arson  and  murder  their  departure  would 
have  invited.  Instead  of  that,  witness  the  mir 
acle  of  the  slave  in  loyalty  closing  the  fetters 
about  his  own  limbs  —  maintaining  the  families 
of  those  who  fought  against  his  freedom  —  and 
at  night  on  the  far-off  battlefield  searching  among 
the  carnage  for  his  young  master,  that  he  might 
lift  the  dying  head  to  his  humble  breast  and  with 
rough  hands  wipe  the  blood  away,  and  bend  his 
tender  ear  to  catch  the  last  words  for  the  old  ones 
at  home,  wrestling  meanwhile  in  agony  and  love, 
that  in  vicarious  sacrifice  he  would  have  laid 
down  his  life  in  his  master's  stead.  This  friend 
liness,  thank  God,  has  survived  the  lapse  of  years, 
the  interruption  of  factions,  and  the  violence  of 
campaigns,  in  which  the  bayonet  fortified,  and 
the  drumbeat  inspired.  Though  unsuspected  in 
slavery,  it  explains  the  miracle  of  '64  —  though 
not  yet  confessed,  it  must  explain  the  miracle  of 
1888. 

Can  a  Northern  man  dealing  with  casual  serv 
ants,  querulous,  sensitive,  and  lodged  for  a  day 
in  a  sphere  they  resent,  understand  the  close  re 
lations  of  the  races  of  the  South?  Can  he  com 
prehend  the  open-hearted,  sympathetic  negro, 
contented  in  his  place,  full  of  gossip  and  comrade- 

83 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

ship,  the  companion  of  the  hunt,  the  frolic,  the 
furrow,  and  the  home,  standing  in  kindly  depend 
ence  that  is  the  habit  of  his  blood,  and  lifting 
not  his  eyes  beyond  the  narrow  horizon  that  shuts 
him  in  with  his  neighbors?  This  relation  may 
be  interrupted,  but  permanent  estrangement  can 
never  come  between  these  two  races.  It  is  upon 
this  that  the  South  depends.  By  fair  dealing  and 
by  sympathy  to  deepen  this  friendship  and  add 
thereto  the  moral  effect  of  the  better  elements 
compacted,  with  the  wealth  and  intelligence  and 
influence  lodged  therein  —  it  is  this  upon  which 
the  South  has  relied  for  years,  and  upon  which 
she  will  rest  in  future. 

Against  this  no  outside  power  can  prevail. 
That  there  has  been  violence  is  admitted.  There 
has  also  been  brutality  in  the  North.  But  I  do 
not  believe  there  was  a  negro  voter  in  the  South 
kept  away  from  the  polls  by  fear  of  violence  in 
the  late  election.  I  believe  there  were  fewer 
votes  miscounted  in  the  South  than  in  the  North. 
Even  in  those  localities  where  violence  once  oc 
curred,  wiser  counsels  have  prevailed,  and  reliance 
is  placed  on  those  higher  and  legitimate  and  in 
exorable  methods  by  which  the  superior  race 
always  dominates,  and  by  which  intelligence  and 
integrity  always  resist  the  domination  of  igno 
rance  and  corruption.  If  the  honest  Republicans 
of  the  North  permit  a  scheme  of  federal  supervi- 

84 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

sion,  based  on  the  assumption  of  intimidated  vot 
ers  and  a  false  count,  they  will  blunder  from 
the  start,  for,  beginning  in  error,  they  will  end 
in  worse.  This  whole  matter  should  be  left  now 
with  the  people  with  whom  it  must  be  left  at 
last  —  that  people  most  interested  in  its  honor 
able  settlement.  External  pressure  but  irritates 
and  delays.  The  South  has  voluntarily  laid 
down  the  certainty  of  power  which  dividing  her 
States  would  bring,  that  she  might  solve  this 
problem  in  the  deliberation  and  the  calmness  it 
demands.  She  turns  away  from  spoils,  knowing 
that  to  struggle  for  them  would  bring  irritation 
to  endanger  greater  things.  She  postpones  re 
forms  and  surrenders  economic  convictions,  that 
unembarrassed  she  may  deal  with  this  great  issue. 
And  she  pledges  her  sacred  honor  —  by  all  that 
she  has  won,  and  all  that  she  has  suffered  —  that 
she  will  settle  this  problem  in  such  full  and  exact 
justice  as  the  finite  mind  can  measure,  or  finite 
hands  administer.  On  this  pledge  she  asks  the 
patience  and  waiting  judgment  of  the  world,  and 
especially  of  the  people — her  brother^  and  her 
kindred  —  that  in  passion  forced  this  problem 
into  the  keeping  of  her  helpless  hands. 

Shall  she  have  it  ?  Let  us  see.  Was  there  a 
pistol  shot  through  the  South  on  election  day  ? 
Was  there  a  riot  ?  Was  there  anything  to  equal 
the  disturbance  and  arrests  in  President  Harri- 

85 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

son's  own  city  ?  If  so,  diligent  search  has  not 
found  it.  Where,  then,  was  the  vote  suppressed 
through  violence?  In  the  12,000  election  pre 
cincts  of  the  South,  where  was  a  ballot  box  rifled, 
or  a  registry  list  altered  ?  Thirteen  Republican 
congressmen  were  elected,  many  of  them  by 
majorities  so  slender  that  the  vote  of  a  single 
precinct  would  have  changed  the  result.  In 
West  Virginia,  with  its  wild  and  lawless  dis 
tricts,  the  governorship  hangs  on  less  than  300 
votes,  and  this  very  day  the  governor  of  Tennes 
see  and  his  cabinet  are  passing  on  a  legal  ques 
tion  in  the  casting  of  twenty-three  votes  that 
elects  or  defeats  a  congressman.  In  West  Vir 
ginia  and  in  Tennessee  the  law  will  be  applied 
as  impartially  and  the  official  vote  held  as  sacred 
as  in  New  York  or  Ohio.  Where,  then,  is  the 
wholesale  fraud  of  which  complaint  is  made  ? 

In  the  face  of  this  showing,  let  me  quote  from 
an  editorial  in  the  Chicago  Tribune,  one  of  the 
most  powerful  and  a  usually  conservative  journal, 
charging  that  the  negro  vote  is  suppressed  and 
miscounted.  It  says  :  — 

"The  trouble  is,  the  blacks  will  not  fight  for  themselves. 
White  men,  or  Indians,  situated  as  the  negroes,  would 
have  made  the  rivers  of  the  South  run  red  with  blood  be 
fore  they  would  submit  to  the  usurpations  and  wrongs 
with  which  the  blacks  passively  endure.  Oppressed  by 
generations  of  slavery,  the  negroes  are  noncombatants. 
They  will  not  shoot  and  burn  for  their  rights." 

86 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

Mark  the  unspeakable  infamy  of  this  sugges 
tion.  The  "trouble"  is  that  the  negroes  will 
not  rise  and  shoot  and  burn.  Not  the  "  mercy  " 
is  that  they  do  not  —  but  the  "mercy"  is  that 
they  will  not  massacre  and  begin  the  strife  that 
would  repeat  the  horrors  of  Haiti  in  the  various 
States  of  this  Republic.  Burn  and  shoot  for 
what  ?  That  they  may  vote  in  Georgia,  where 
in  front  of  me  in  the  line  stood  a  negro,  whose 
place  was  as  sacred  as  mine,  and  whose  vote  as 
safely  counted  ?  That  they  may  vote  in  the  thir 
teen  districts  in  which  they  have  elected  their  con 
gressmen  ?  —  in  the  320  counties  in  which  they 
have  elected  their  representatives,  and  in  old  Vir 
ginia,  where  they  came  within  1400  votes  of  car 
rying  the  State  ? 

As  the  60,000  Virginia  negroes  who  did  vote 
did  so  in  admitted  peace  and  safety,  where  was 
the  violence  that  prevented  the  needed  1400  from 
leaving  their  fields,  coming  to  the  ballot  box,  and 
giving  the  State  to  the  Republicans  ?  And  yet 
slavery  itself,  in  which  the  selling  of  a  child  from 
its  mother's  arms  and  a  wife  from  her  husband 
was  permitted,  never  brought  into  reputable 
print  so  villainous  a  suggestion  as  this,  leveled 
by  a  knave  at  a  political  condition  which  he 
views  from  afar,  and  which  it  is  proved  does  not 
exist.  To  pass  by  the  man  who  wrote  these 
words,  how  shall  we  judge  the  temper  of  a  com- 

87 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

munity  in  which  they  are  applauded  ?  Are  these 
men  blood  of  our  blood  that  they  permit  such 
things  to  go  unchallenged  ?  Better  that  they 
had  refused  us  parole  at  Appomattox  and  had 
confiscated  the  ruins  of  our  homes,  than  twenty 
years  later  to  bring  us  under  the  dominion  of 
such  passion  as  this.  Hear  another  witness, 
General  Sherman,  not  in  hot  speech,  but  in  cold 
print :  — 

"  The  negro  must  be  allowed  to  vote,  and  his  vote  must 
be  counted,  otherwise,  so  sure  as  there  is  a  God  in  heaven, 
you  will  have  another  war,  more  cruel  than  the  last,  when 
the  torch  and  dagger  will  take  the  place  of  the  muskets 
of  well-ordered  battalions.  Should  the  negro  strike  that 
blow,  in  seeming  justice,  there  will  be  millions  to  assist 
them." 

And  this  is  the  greatest  living  soldier  of  the 
Union  army.  He  covered  the  desolation  he 
sowed  in  city  and  country  through  these  States 
with  the  maxim  that  "  cruelty  in  war,  is  mercy" 
—  and  no  one  lifted  the  cloak.  But  when  he  in 
sults  the  men  he  conquered,  and  endangers  the  re 
newing  growth  of  the  country  he  wasted,  with 
this  unmanly  threat,  he  puts  a  stain  on  his  name 
the  maxims  of  philosophy  and  fable  from  Socrates 
all  the  way  cannot  cover,  and  the  glory  of  Marl- 
borough,  were  it  added  to  his  own,  could  not 
efface. 

No  answer  can  be  made  in  passion  to  these 
88 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

men.  If  the  temper  of  the  North  is  expressed  in 
their  words,  the  South  can  do  nothing  but  rally 
her  sons  for  their  last  defense  and  await  in  si 
lence  what  the  future  may  bring  forth.  This, 
much  should  be  said  :  The  negro  can  never  be 
established  in  dominion  over  the  white  race  of 
the  South.  The  sword  of  Grant  and  the  bay 
onets  of  his  army  could  not  maintain  them  in 
the  supremacy  they  had  won  from  the  helpless 
ness  of  our  people.  No  sword  drawn  by  mortal 
man,  no  army  martialed  by  mortal  hand,  can  re 
place  them  in  the  supremacy  from  which  they 
were  cast  down  by  our  people,  for  the  Lord  God 
Almighty  decreed  otherwise  when  he  created 
these  races,  and  the  flaming  sword  of  his  arch 
angel  will  enforce  his  decree  and  work  out  his 
plan  of  unchangeable  wisdom. 

I  do  not  believe  the  people  of  the  North  will 
be  committed  to  a  violent  policy.  I  believe  in  the 
good  faith  and  fair  play  of  the  American  people. 
These  noisy  insects  of  the  hour  will  perish  with 
the  heat  that  warmed  them  into  life,  and  when 
their  pestilent  cries  have  ceased,  the  great  clock 
of  the  Republic  will  strike  the  slow-moving  and 
tranquil  hours,  and  the  watchmen  from  the 
streets  will  cry,  "All's  well  —  all's  well!"  I 
thank  God  that  through  the  mists  of  passion 
that  already  cloud  our  Northern  horizon  comes 
the  clear,  strong  voice  of  President  Harrison  de- 

89 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

claring  that  the  South  shall  not  suffer,  but  shall 
prosper,  in  his  election.  Happy  will  it  be  for  us 
—  happy  for  this  country,  and  happy  for  his 
name  and  fame,  if  he  has  the  courage  to  with 
stand  the  demagogues  who  clamor  for  our  cruci 
fixion,  and  the  wisdom  to  establish  a  path  in 
which  voters  of  all  parties  and  of  all  sections 
may  walk  together  in  peace  and  prosperity. 

Should  the  President  yield  to  the  demands  of 
the  pestilent,  the  country  will  appeal  from  his 
decision.  In  Indiana  and  New  York  more  than 
2,000,000  votes  were  cast.  By  less  than  16,000 
majority  these  States  were  given  to  Harrison, 
and  his  election  thereby  secured.  A  change  of 
less  than  10,000  in  this  enormous  poll  would 
restore  the  Democratic  party  to  power.  If 
President  Harrison  permits  this  unrighteous 
crusade  on  the  peace  of  the  South,  and  the  pros 
perity  of  the  people,  this  change  and  more  will 
be  made,  and  the  Democratic  party  restored  to 
power. 

In  her  industrial  growth  the  South  is  daily 
making  new  friends.  Every  dollar  of  Northern 
money  invested  in  the  South  gives  us  a  new 
friend  in  that  section.  Every  settler  among  us 
raises  up  new  witnesses  to  our  fairness,  sincerity, 
and  loyalty.  We  shall  secure  from  the  North 
more  friendliness  and  sympathy,  more  champions 
and  friends,  through  the  influence  of  our  indus- 

90 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

trial  growth,  than  through  political  aspiration  or 
achievement.  Few  men  can  comprehend — would 
that  I  had  the  time  to  dwell  on  this  point  to-day 
—  how  vast  has  been  the  development,  how  swift 
the  growth,  and  how  deep  and  enduring  is  laid 
the  basis  of  even  greater  growth  in  the  future. 
Companies  of  immigrants  sent  down  from  the 
sturdy  settlers  of  the  North  will  solve  the  South 
ern  problem,  and  bring  this  section  into  full  and 
harmonious  relations  with  the  North  quicker  than 
all  the  battalions  that  could  be  armed  and  mar- 
tialed  could  do. 

The  tide  of  immigration  is  already  springing 
this  way.  Let  us  encourage  it.  But  let  us  see 
that  these  immigrants  come  in  well-ordered  pro 
cession,  and  not  pell-mell.  That  they  come  as 
friends  and  neighbors  —  to  mingle  their  blood 
with  ours,  to  build  their  homes  on  our  fields,  to 
plant  their  Christian  faith  on  these  red  hills/ and 
not  seeking  to  plant  strange  heresies  of  govern 
ment  and  faith,  but,  honoring  our  Constitution 
and  reverencing  our  God,  to  confirm,  and  not  es 
trange,  the  simple  faith  in  which  we  have  been 
reared,  and  which  we  should  transmit  unsullied 
to  our  children. 

It  may  be  that  the  last  hope  of  saving  the  old- 
fashioned  on  this  continent  will  be  lodged  in  the 
South.  Strange  admixtures  have  brought  strange 
results  in  the  North.  The  anarchist  and  atheist 

91 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

walk  abroad  in  the  cities,  and,  defying  govern 
ment,  deny  God.  Culture  has  refined  for  itself 
new  and  strange  religions  from  the  strong  old 
creeds. 

The  old-time  South  is  fading  from  observance, 
and  the  mellow  church-bells  that  called  the 
people  to  the  temples  of  God  are  being  tabooed 
and  silenced.  Let  us,  my  countrymen,  here  to 
day  —  yet  a  homogeneous  and  God-fearing  people 
—  let  us  highly  resolve  that  we  will  carry  un 
tainted  the  straight  and  simple  faith — that  we 
will  give  ourselves  to  the  saving  of  the  old-fash 
ioned,  that  we  will  wear  in  our  hearts  the 
prayers  we  learned  at  our  mother's  knee,  and 
seek  no  better  than  that  which  fortified  her  life 
through  adversity,  and  led  her  serene  and  smiling 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow. 

Let  us  keep  sacred  the  Sabbath  of  God  in  its 
purity,  and  have  no  city  so  great,  or  village  so 
small,  that  every  Sunday  morning  shall  not 
stream  forth  over  towns  and  meadows  the  golden 
benediction  of  the  bells,  as  they  summon  the 
people  to  the  churches  of  their  fathers,  and  ring 
out  in  praise  of  God  and  the  power  of  His  might. 
Though  other  people  are  led  into  the  bitterness 
of  unbelief,  or  into  the  stagnation  of  apathy  and 
neglect  —  let  us  keep  these  two  States  in  the 
current  of  the  sweet  old-fashioned,  that  the  sweet 
rushing  waters  may  lap  their  sides,  and  every- 

92 


THE   "SOLID  SOUTH" 

where  from  their  soil  grow  the  tree,  the  leaf 
whereof  shall  not  fade  and  the  fruit  whereof 
shall  not  die,  but  the  fruit  whereof  shall  be  meat, 
and  the  leaf  whereof  shall  be  healing. 

In  working  out  our  civil,  political,  and  religious 
salvation,  everything  depends  on  the  union  of 
our  people.  The  man  who  seeks  to  divide  them 
now  in  the  hour  of  their  trial,  that  man  puts  am 
bition  before  patriotism.  A  distinguished  gentle 
man  said  that  "  certain  upstarts  and  speculators 
were  seeking  to  create  a  new  South  to  the  deri 
sion  and  disparagement  of  the  old,"  and  rebukes 
them  for  so  doing.  These  are  cruel  and  unjust 
words.  It  was  Ben  Hill  —  the  music  of  whose 
voice  hath  not  deepened,  though  now  attuned  to 
the  symphonies  of  the  skies  —  who  said,  "  There 
was  a  South  of  secession  and  slavery  —  that 
South  is  dead ;  there  is  a  South  of  union  and  free 
dom  —  that  South,  thank  God,  is  living,  growing 
every  hour." 

It  was  he  who  named  the  New  South.  One 
of  the  "  upstarts  "  said  in  a  speech  in  New  York : 
"In  answering  the  toast  to  the  New  South,  I 
accept  that  name  in  no  disparagement  to  the  Old 
South.  Dear  to  me,  sir,  is  the  home  of  my  child 
hood  and  the  traditions  of  my  people,  and  not  for 
the  glories  of  New  England  history  from  Plym 
outh  Rock  all  the  way,  would  I  surrender  the 
least  of  these.  Never  shall  I  do,  or  say,  aught  to 

93 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

dim  the  luster  of  the  glory  of  my  ancestors,  won 
in  peace  and  war." 

Where  is  the  young  man  in  the  South  who  has 
spoken  one  word  in  disparagement  of  our  past, 
or  has  worn  lightly  the  sacred  traditions  of  our 
fathers  ?  The  world  has  not  equaled  the  unques 
tioning  reverence  and  undying  loyalty  of  the 
young  man  of  the  South  to  the  memory  of  our 
fathers.  History  has  not  equaled  the  cheerful 
ness  and  heroism  with  which  they  bestirred  them 
selves  amid  the  poverty  that  was  their  legacy,  and 
holding  the  inspiration  of  their  past  to  be  better 
than  rich  acres  and  garnered  wealth,  went  out 
to  do  their  part  in  rebuilding  the  fallen  fortunes 
of  the  South  and  restoring  her  fields  to  their  pris 
tine  beauty.  Wherever  they  have  driven,  —  in 
market-place,  putting  youth  against  experience, 
poverty  against  capital ;  in  the  shop,  earning  in 
the  light  of  their  forges  and  the  sweat  of  their 
faces  the  bread  and  meat  for  those  dependent 
upon  them ;  in  the  forum,  eloquent  by  instinct, 
able  though  unlettered ;  on  the  farm,  locking 
the  sunshine  in  their  harvests  and  spreading  the 
showers  on  their  fields  —  everywhere  my  heart 
has  been  with  them,  and  I  thank  God  that  they 
are  comrades  and  countrymen  of  mine.  I  have 
stood  with  them  shoulder  to  shoulder  as  they  met 
new  conditions  without  surrendering  old  faiths  — 
and  I  have  been  content  to  feel  the  grasp  of  their 

94 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

hands  and  the  throb  of  their  hearts,  and  hear  the 
music  of  their  quick  step  as  they  marched  unfear- 
ing  into  new  and  untried  ways.  If  I  should  at 
tempt  to  prostitute  the  generous  enthusiasm  of 
these  my  comrades  to  my  own  ambition,  I  should 
be  unworthy.  If  any  man,  enwrapping  himself 
in  the  sacred  memories  of  the  old  South,  should 
prostitute  them  to  the  hiding  of  his  weakness,  or 
the  strengthening  of  his  failing  fortunes,  that  man 
would  be  unworthy.  If  any  man  for  his  own 
advantage  should  seek  to  divide  the  old  South 
from  the  new,  or  the  new  from  the  old,  —  to  sepa 
rate  these  that  in  love  hath  been  joined  together, 
—  to  estrange  the  son  from  his  father's  grave  and 
turn  our  children  from  the  monuments  of  our 
dead,  to  embitter  the  closing  days  of  our  veter 
ans  with  suspicion  of  the  sons  who  shall  follow 
them,  —  this  man's  words  are  unworthy  and  are 
spoken  to  the  injury  of  his  people. 

Some  one  has  said  in  derision  that  the  old  men 
of  the  South,  sitting  down  amid  their  ruins,  re 
minded  him  "  of  the  Spanish  hidalgos  sitting  in 
the  porches  of  the  Alhambra,  and  looking  out  to 
sea  for  the  return  of  the  lost  Armada."  There 
is  pathos,  but  no  derision,  in  this  picture  to  me. 
These  men  were  our  fathers.  Their  lives  were 
stainless.  Their  hands  were  daintily  cast,  and 
the  civilization  they  builded  in  tender  and  engag 
ing  grace  hath  not  been  equaled.  The  scenes 

95 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

amid  which  they  moved,  as  princes  among  men, 
have  vanished  forever.  A  grosser  and  more  mate 
rial  day  has  come,  in  which  their  gentle  hands  can 
garner  but  scantily,  and  their  guileless  hearts  fend 
but  feebly.  Let  them  sit,  therefore,  in  the  dis 
mantled  porches  of  their  homes,  into  which  dis 
honor  hath  never  entered,  to  which  discourtesy 
is  a  stranger  —  and  gaze  out  to  the  sea,  beyond 
the  horizon  of  which  their  armada  has  drifted 
forever.  And  though  the  sea  shall  not  render 
back  for  them  the  argosies  that  went  down  in 
their  ships,  let  us  build  for  them  in  the  land  they 
love  so  well  a  stately  and  enduring  temple  —  its 
pillars  founded  in  justice,  its  arches  springing 
to  the  skies,  its  treasuries  filled  with  substance ; 
liberty  walking  in  its  corridors ;  art  adorning  its 
walls  ;  religion  filling  its  aisles  with  incense,  — 
and  here  let  them  rest  in  honorable  peace  and 
tranquillity  until  God  shall  call  them  hence  to 
"a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the 
heavens." 

There  are  other  things  I  wish  to  say  to  you 
to-day,  my  countrymen,  but  my  voice  forbids.  I 
thank  you  for  your  courteous  and  patient  atten 
tion.  And  I  pray  to  God  —  who  hath  led  us 
through  sorrow  and  travail  —  that  on  this  day 
of  universal  thanksgiving,  when  every  Christian 
heart  in  this  audience  is  uplifted  in  praise,  that 
He  will  open  the  gates  of  His  glory  and  bend 

96 


THE  "SOLID  SOUTH" 

down  above  us  in  mercy  and  love !  And  that 
these  people  who  have  given  themselves  unto 
Him,  and  who  wear  His  faith  in  their  hearts, 
that  He  will  lead  them  even  as  little  children 
are  led  —  that  He  will  deepen  their  wisdom  with 
the  ambition  of  His  words  —  that  He  will  turn 
them  from  error  with  the  touch  of  His  Almighty 
hand  —  that  He  will  crown  all  their  triumphs 
with  the  light  of  His  approving  smile,  and  into 
the  heart  of  their  troubles,  whether  of  people  or 
State,  that  He  will  pour  the  healing  of  His  mercy 
and  His  grace. 


97 


A   PLEA   FOR   PROHIBITION 

PREFATORY  NOTE 

Inasmuch  as  the  following  speech  has  never  before 
been  published,  the  circumstances  which  called  it  forth 
may  be  of  interest.  It  was  delivered  during  a  hotly  con 
tested  prohibition  campaign  in  Atlanta,  on  the  evening 
of  November  17,  1887.  At  a  public  meeting  held  two 
weeks  previously,  Mr.  Grady  made  a  short  address  in 
which  he  stated  that,  after  weighing  as  best  he  could  all 
the  arguments  for  and  against  the  proposition  to  reenact 
the  law  against  the  sale  of  whisky  in  Atlanta,  he  had 
come  to  the  deliberate  conclusion  that  it  was  his  impera 
tive  duty  to  advocate  the  side  of  prohibition.  This 
address  elicited  general  comment,  and  Mr.  Grady  was 
attacked  with  great  severity  by  the  anti-prohibitionists. 
He  was  told  by  his  friends  that  he  had  committed  the 
worst  blunder  of  his  life  and  had  sealed  his  fate.  In  a 
few  days  it  was  rumored  about  the  streets  that  he  had 
recanted ;  that  so  great  a  pressure  had  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  him  that  he  had  declared  his  purpose  to  re 
nounce  the  prohibition  cause.  Thereupon  he  announced 
his  intention  to  make  a  speech  clearly  denning  his  posi 
tion  and  discussing  the  merits  of  the  question  at  issue. 
Though  the  meeting  at  which  he  spoke  was  held  in  an 
immense  warehouse,  thousands  of  people  were  unable  to 
gain  entrance.  Captain  Howell,  Mr.  Grady's  associate 
editor  on  the  Constitution,  addressed  an  anti-prohibition 
meeting  the  same  evening.  When  Mr.  Grady  rose 
to  speak,  an  audience  of  8000  people  greeted  him  with 
tumultuous  applause. 

98 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

Though  the  speech  contains  a  number  of  local  allusions, 
it  is  given  below  —  a  fine  example  of  both  an  argument 
and  a  plea  — with  only  slight  abridgment. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen:  I  thank  you  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  for  this  reception.  I  pre 
sume  the  Constitution  to-morrow  will  say  in  its 
report  of  the  two  meetings  of  to-night,  that  more 
people  were  out  than  live  in  Atlanta.  If  the 
other  meeting  is  as  big  as  ours,  it  will  be  mighty 
near  the  truth.  It  is  hard  to  measure  this  meet 
ing,  because  we  had  them  when  they  went  to  the 
opera  house,  and  we  could  put  that  in  one  corner 
of  our  building  and  not  miss  it.  They  realize 
this,  and  they  have  an  open-air  meeting,  also. 
Well,  we  could  not  get  all  the  open  air  into  this 
building ;  so  I  trust  that  my  partner,  whom  I 
love,  has  such  a  crowd  as  this.  I  am  satisfied 
that  I  address  to-night  enough  voters  of  this  city 
to  absolutely,  finally,  and  permanently  settle  the 
great  question  that  disturbs  us.  I  have  been 
quoted  as  saying  that  I  would  give  11000  if  I 
had  not  spoken  here  two  weeks  ago.  The  state 
ment  is  false ;  but  if  it  were  true,  I  am  here  to 
night  to  make  the  debt  110,000.  If  I  have  done 
or  said  anything  in  the  thirty -six  years  of  my  life 
that  has  my  more  perfect  approval  than  that 
speech,  I  do  not  now  remember  it.  I  have  been 
abused  roundly  for  making  that  speech.  The 
artesian  well  knows  more  mean  things  about  me 

99 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

now  than  I  ever  knew  myself.  I  am  proud  of 
the  attention  of  the  enemy.  It  shall  not  disturb 
me.  If  I  am  not  unbalanced  by  your  generous 
approval,  I  certainly  shall  not  be  deterred  by 
their  ungenerous  abuse.  A  friend  of  mine,  a 
gallant  major,  whose  chaste  and  impassioned 
oration  has  already  become  classic,  states  that 
I  am  as  good  an  anti  as  I  am  a  prohibitionist, 
and  that  he  had  a  conversation  with  me,  and  I 
talked  anti-prohibition.  I  think  the  leaders  of  his 
party  will  agree  that  he  talks  a  little  better  on 
one  side  than  he  does  on  the  other,  if  we  can 
judge  from  the  prophecies  with  which  he  has 
gone  into  winter  quarters  with  their  consent.  I 
had  long  believed  in  high  license,  and  I  firmly 
declined  for  this  reason  to  take  part  in  your 
former  campaign.  But  since  the  last  election  I 
have  watched  this  experiment  closely,  and  loving 
Atlanta,  and  zealous  for  her  welfare,  I  have  often 
been  discouraged,  and  I  have  often  said  so  in  per 
fect  frankness ;  but  my  investigation  of  the  past 
few  weeks  has  carried  me  beyond  doubt,  that 
this  experiment,  imperfectly  tried,  has  been 
wholly  successful,  and  if  it  must  be  modified, 
that  it  can  better  be  modified  without  barrooms 
than  through  them.  This  conclusion,  reached  by 
my  reason,  is  approved  by  my  heart  and  my  con 
science,  and  from  it  I  shall  not  be  shaken.  Now 
it  is  said  that  I  should  not  speak  or  work  in  this 

100 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 


factional  fight,  because  I  have  found  Atlanta  with 
out  faction  always  at  my  side.  Is  it  immodest 
in  me  to  say  that  I  have  never  urged  this  people 
to  my  own  advancement  ?  I  have  never  asked 
Atlanta  for  office  or  emolument.  As  I  have  never 
profited  by  your  confidence  for  my  personal  pro 
motion  in  the  past,  I  shall  never  do  so  in  the  fu 
ture.  If  I  can  live  among  this  people  that  I  love, 
as  a  friend  and  a  fellow-worker,  following  my 
chosen  profession  with  reasonable  success,  abide 
with  you  to  the  end,  and  at  the  last  die  in  your 
regard  and  confidence  —  if  I  can  leave  my  son 
a  sober  and  honest  man  among  you,  inheriting 
through  kindly  memory  of  his  father  the  charity 
his  young  life  may  need,  and  finding  his  pride 
and  inspiration  in  saying,  when  he  looks  abroad 
on  the  splendid  Atlanta  that  is  to  be,  "  My  fa 
ther's  hand  had  part  in  this  upbuilding,  and  his 
life  was  given  for  this  work  "  —  then  the  earthly 
measure  of  my  ambition  shall  be  filled. 

I  have  spoken  thus  personally  because  I  want 
to  strip  this  question  to-night  of  any  personal  en 
tanglements  or  embarrassments  that  might  mis 
lead  or  obstruct  you  in  finding  a  true  and  right 
solution  of  the  problem.  It  is  the  gravest  prob 
lem,  my  friends,  that  has  ever  confronted  us.  It 
lies  deeper  than  the  most  thoughtful  men  believe. 
It  affects  not  only  the  welfare  of  this  community, 
but  it  rests  upon  every  heart  and  every  hearth- 

101 


AND  SPEECHES 

stone  in  this  town.  I  ask  you  for  your  patient 
and  impartial  hearing  to-night.  I  should  despise 
myself  and  my  cause  if  I  willfully  mislead  you 
by  the  exaggeration  of  one  fact  or  the  suppression 
of  another.  We  are  equally  interested  in  finding 
the  right  solution  of  this  question,  and  I  beg  you 
to  listen  that  together,  as  comrades  and  friends, 
we  may  come  to  it,  in  soberness  and  truth. 

Now,  in  my  former  speech,  I  laid  down  two 
propositions.  I  have  heard  scores  of  men  say 
that,  if  that  speech  stood  the  test  of  investigation, 
they  could  not  find,  and  they  would  not  look  for, 
an  excuse  for  voting  against  the  experiment  in 
defense  of  which  it  was  spoken ! 

Now,  I  shall  review  that  speech  for  a  moment. 
I  said,  first,  that  prohibition  had  not  had  a  fair 
trial  in  Atlanta.  Is  there  a  man  in  this  vast 
crowd  that  will  say  that  it  has  had  a  fair  trial  ? 
Unexpired  licenses  dragged  more  than  half  through 
it,  with  every  legal  step  obstructed,  and  with 
every  fine  contested,  with  the  machinery  work 
ing  unsatisfactorily ;  will  any  man  say  that  this 
experiment  has  had  a  fair  trial  in  Atlanta?  Is 
there  any  business  man  who  would  be  content 
with  such  a  trial  given  to  any  business  project 
in  his  own  affairs  that  involved  so  much  and  was 
so  far-reaching  and  important  ? 

I  hold,  in  the  second  place,  that,  imperfectly 
tried,  it  has  been  an  unspeakable  success.  I  intro- 

102 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

duce  four  real  estate  agents  as  witnesses  that 
distress  warrants,  the  most  pernicious  form  of 
debt  collection,  had  decreased  in  a  remarkable 
degree.  That  statement  was  assaulted  and  the 
records  were  brought  up  to  disprove  it.  Next 
day  I  brought  back  my  four  witnesses,  every  man 
standing  by  what  he  had  said,  and  I  had  five 
additional  witnesses,  making  every  real  estate 
agent  in  the  city  but  two.  The  records  of  the 
courts  have  been  searched,  and  I  have  now  the 
statement  from  the  three  justice  courts  of  this 
city  (omitting  Judge  Butt's,  which  no  one  can 
get),  showing  on  their  books  that  there  has  been 
a  decrease  of  ninety-five  distress  warrants  for 
this  year  as  compared  with  1885. 

Some  one  is  represented  as  stating,  in  discuss 
ing  personal  liberty  and  the  inalienable  rights 
of  man,  "  I  pity  the  man  who  can't  get  above 
distress  warrants."  Now,  who  can  get  higher 
than  the  homes  of  the  people  ?  Who  can  find 
better  work  than  to  touch  with  healing,  hearts 
that  suffer  and  are  breaking  ?  Can  legal  abstrac 
tions  take  you  higher,  or  can  splitting  hairs  on 
personal  liberty  give  you  better  work  ?  I  pity 
the  man  who  can  sit  in  his  office  and  refine  musty 
doctrines,  while  human  hearts  are  breaking  all 
about  him,  and  cheeks  and  steps  are  faltering, 
and  want  and  hunger  are  swarming  against  the 
citadel  of  human  life  and  happiness. 

103 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

He  may  find  a  lesson  in  the  course  of  the  great 
Teacher  who  went  through  the  byways  of  this 
earth  healing  the  sick  and  wrapping  with  com 
passion  the  poor  and  humble,  while  the  Pharisees 
and  the  scribes  sat  disdaining  in  the  temple.  The 
world  has  learned  that  lesson,  and  hearts  open  to 
suffering  that  are  closed  to  learning  and  to  love. 
The  truth  is,  the  procession  of  the  evicted,  —  those 
distressed  from  their  homes,  the  pitiful  procession, 
of  the  wife  and  her  children  huddled  about  her 
and  the  weak  but  loving  father  walking  through 
the  city  and  seeking  a  hole  to  hide  in,  —  this  pro 
cession,  the  pathos  of  which  thought  cannot 
fathom  or  tongue  describe,  marched  straight  into 
the  hearts  and  conscience  of  this  people,  and  the 
antis  know  it. 

One  further  point.  They  talk  about  garnish 
ments.  They  went  to  Grant  Wilkins,  and  from 
the  way  he  stuck  up  to  them,  the  G  in  his  name 
might  stand  for  Gibraltar.  He  said  I  did  not 
tell  half  the  truth.  He  is  a  man  of  profound 
convictions,  and  he  was  the  strongest  anti  I  ever 
saw,  and  yet  he  says  he  will  not  vote  for  it  again, 
because  he  can't  do  it  with  his  knowledge  of 
the  facts  as  they  are  under  prohibition,  as  seen 
by  his  eyes  and  heard  by  his  ears. 

That  other  manufacturer,  whom  I  now  pro 
claim  to  be  Jacob  Elsas,  —  why  didn't  they  take 
his  statement?  He  is  published  as  an  anti-pro- 

104 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

hibition  committeeman,  but  he  says  he  has  seen 
this  thing  in  his  business  and  it  convinces  him 
of  the  benefit  to  Atlanta,  and  he  will  not  vote 
again  to  put  it  out.  He  says  that  prohibition  is 
undoubtedly  the  thing  for  Atlanta. 

Take  the  statement  of  Mr.  Robert  Schmidt,  pub 
lished  as  a  member  of  the  anti-prohibition  com 
mittee.  He  stated  that  he  knew  ten  families  in 
his  own  knowledge  who  had  been  raised  under 
prohibition  from  destitution  and  dependence  to 
comfort  and  independence,  and  Mr.  Raoul  said  to 
Mr.  Inman,  "  I  was  an  anti-prohibitionist,  but  the 
statement  given  to  me  by  Mr.  Schmidt,  about  the 
effect  of  prohibition  on  families  within  his  own 
knowledge,  has  almost  converted  me  to  prohibi 
tion."  Now  here  is  the  statement  of  three 
prominent  anti-prohibitionists. 

But  I  went  still  further.  I  showed  that  not 
only  had  distress  warrants  decreased,  but  I 
showed  that  the  whole  litigation  of  justice 
courts  had  decreased  2595  cases  in  the  civil  dock 
ets  and  431  cases  on  the  criminal  side,  and  an 
anti  actually  said  that  the  decrease  of  2595  cases 
in  the  justice  courts  in  this  town  implies  a  stag 
nation  in  business.  The  baker's  wagon  may  roll 
up  to  your  door,  the  coal  wagon  may  come 
where  it  never  came  before  and  dump  you  out  a 
ton  of  coal,  the  butcher's  wagon  may  deliver  you 
meat,  or  the  grocery  wagon  its  sundries,  but  be- 

105 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

cause  the  bailiff  doesn't  amble  round  to  your  back 
door  on  his  horse  there  is  a  stagnation  in  business  ! 

Why,  think  of  it!  Because  families  sit  in 
their  homes  and  are  happy  by  their  firesides,  and 
because  they  don't  obstruct  the  streets  with 
evicted  processions,  there  is  stagnation  in  your 
business !  The  merchants  may  go  to  New  York 
three  or  four  times  a  year  and  buy  goods,  mills 
and  factories  may  run  night  and  day,  unable  to 
fill  their  orders,  but  just  because  the  cobwebs  are 
gathering  in  your  justice  courts,  and  there  are 
2595  fewer  cases  for  the  young  lawyers  to  tear 
their  hair  in  these  courts  at,  business  is  stag 
nated  !  Did  you  ever  hear  such  an  argument 
in  your  life  ?  Think  of  it.  I  tell  you,  in  speaking 
as  a  man  among  you,  with  loving  affection  and 
comradeship  for  the  whole  people  of  this  town,  I 
tell  you  that  the  decrease  in  the  justice  courts, 
civil  and  criminal  business,  is  the  measure  of  your 
increasing  prosperity  and  improvement. 

Do  you  want  to  revive  the  industry  of  distress 
warrants?  And  to  revive  the  litigation  in  the 
justice  courts,  civil  and  criminal,  do  you  want 
to  put  oil  in  the  rusty  joints  of  the  bailiff's  horse, 
and  let  him  again  take  the  place  of  the  baker's 
wagon  and  the  butcher's  cart  ?  Remember  the 
decrease  in  justice  court  civil  cases  is  2595 !  and 
this  decrease  is  the  measure  of  your  comfort  and 
independence,  of  your  growing  prosperity. 

106 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

You  know  the  misery  and  shame  and  sorrow  of 
a  little  suit  for  less  than  $100  that  you  can't  pay, 
and  the  bailiff  at  your  door.  If  you  have  never 
seen  it  at  home,  you  have  seen  it  at  the  houses  of 
your  neighbors.  It  means  eviction  often,  and  it 
means  shame,  humiliation,  and  deprivation  al 
ways.  Now,  do  you  want  to  vote  against  all 
the  prosperity  your  city  now  enjoys  and  against 
this  decrease  in  the  civil  business  of  justice 
courts  of  2595  cases  and  in  the  criminal  business 
of  431  cases  ? 

There  are  two  reasons  advanced  why  you 
should  do  it.  One  is  something  about  "per 
sonal  liberty,"  which  I  have  forgotten  and  which 
I  don't  care  about.  Honestly,  that  argument 
is  not  worth  discussing  among  sensible  people. 
You  talk  about  personal  liberty ;  when  Sam 
Jones  spoke  in  the  opera  house  on  Sunday  (and 
that  was  wrong,  I  think  myself),  here  in  Atlanta 
the  anti-prohibitionists  denounced  the  prohibi 
tionists  for  that  as  a  desecration  of  the  holy  Sab 
bath,  and  the  very  next  week  in  New  York  the 
liquor  dealers  assembled  in  Albany,  denounced 
the  law  closing  saloons  in  New  York  City  on 
Sunday,  and  demanded  that  neither  party  should 
nominate  any  members  of  the  legislature  that 
would  not  vote  to  open  saloons  in  New  York  on 
Sunday.  And  they  used  the  very  same  talk 
about  "personal  liberty  of  the  American  citi- 

107 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

zen,"  and  that  the  closing  of  the  saloons  on  Sun 
day  was  an  infringement  on  that  liberty  not  to 
be  borne.  Personal  liberty  must  end  where  pub 
lic  injury  begins ! 

Bear  with  me  just  a  little  while,  while  I  show 
you  why,  in  my  opinion,  barrooms  should  not 
be  returned  to  this  city  on  business  grounds,  and 
why  we  should  hold  on  to  prohibition,  if  for  no 
other  reason,  because  it  has  increased,  and  will 
further  increase,  our  material  prosperity. 

Now,  what  is  the  first  thing  that  makes  a  city 
prosperous  ?  It  is  population  —  the  antis  claim 
that  population  has  decreased  under  prohibition. 
They  say  that  a  great  many  people  have  left 
Atlanta.  That  is  true,  but  I  know  that  a  great 
many  more  have  come  in  to  fill  their  places.  I 
don't  discuss  the  quality  of  those  who  went  or 
came. 

There  is  a  proverb  of  politeness  which  says, 
"Welcome  the  coming  and  speed  the  parting 
guest."  The  mayor  of  Macon  was  reported  to 
have  sent  word  that  he  would  help  Atlanta  stand 
by  prohibition  because  it  had  sent  a  great  many 
of  our  people  to  Macon.  The  very  day  afterwards 
the  Macon  Telegraph  said  the  Macon  people  must 
do  something  to  get  rid  of  the  vagrants  of  that 
town.  It  said,  "They  are  standing  on  every 
street  corner ;  they  are  infesting  the  houses,  beg 
ging  for  bread,  and  they  are  robbing  us  night 

108 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

after  night,  and  we  can't  stand  it."  That's  what 
the  Macon  paper  says  about  it. 

There  have  been  how  many  cases  of  vagrancy 
in  Atlanta  in  the  past  year  ?  They  say  they  have 
got  our  population.  I  expect  they  have.  But 
the  prohibitionists  claim  that  our  population  has 
increased.  This  was  shown  by  a  larger  attend 
ance  at  the  public  schools  —  nearly  1000  in 
crease  this  year.  The  antis  replied,  "  You  have 
built  more  schoolhouses."  We  passed. 

Then  we  said  that  there  were  more  people  be 
cause  there  are  more  houses,  and  every  real  es 
tate  agent  saying  that  he  has  fewer  vacant  houses 
than  ever  before  —  more  houses,  and  all  fuller 
than  ever,  looked  like  growth  instead  of  decrease. 
I  suggested  that  perhaps  they  were  inhabited  by 
the  shades  of  Washington  and  Jefferson,  but  the 
real  estate  agents  said  not.  The  antis  then  ex 
plained  that  —  it's  wonderful  how  they  will  ex 
plain  everything  but  their  own  figures  —  that 
these  houses  are  inhabited  by  women  and  chil 
dren,  whose  husbands  have  been  driven  away  by 
prohibition.  So  we  advanced  one  step  further. 
Street  tax  is  something  which  pertains  exclu 
sively  to  the  masculine  gender.  They  said  there 
were  3814  street  taxpayers  in  1885  and  only 
3600  in  1887.  We  investigated  that,  and  the 
records  show  that  they  are  badly  wrong.  That 
was  just  the  number  reported  upon  the  tax 

109 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

assessor's  books,  but  the  records  of  your  city  tax 
collector  show  that  there  were  over  12,000  street 
taxpayers  in  Atlanta,  in  1886,  making  4070  more 
in  your  city  in  the  first  year  of  prohibition,  and 
the  tax  men  say  there  will  be  a  furthur  increase 
this  year.  These  are  not  men  whose  husbands 
have  gone  —  I  mean  women.  These  are  not 
mothers  whose  sons  have  gone,  but  this  is  the 
record  from  your  city  books.  It  shows  an  in 
crease  of  4070  taxpayers  over  the  year  before. 
One  step  further.  You  have  got  registered  in 
this  county  to-night  2100  more  voters  than  were 
registered  here  two  years  ago.  Well,  now  I  am 
satisfied  that  some  of  these  gentlemen  have  reg 
istered  under  error.  We  will  see  who  they  are 
before  we  get  through  with  that.  But  there  were 
as  many  gentlemen,  perhaps,  who  registered  by 
mistake  two  years  ago,  with  130  barrooms  in 
the  city,  as  were  registered  by  mistake  this  year. 
We  know  there  were  1600  then.  I  don't  think 
there  are  many  more  now.  Not  only  are  there 
more  voters  registered,  but  there  are  numbers  of 
men  in  this  city  who  can't  register  because  they 
have  not  lived  in  the  State  one  year  or  in  the 
county  six  months.  When  people  went  away, 
their  names  went  off  the  registry  books  at  once, 
but  when  people  come  in,  it  takes  a  year's 
residence  in  the  State  and  six  months  in  the 
county  to  replace  the  man  that's  gone.  I  know, 

110 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

in  Grant  Wilkins's  shop,  there  are  twenty-eight 
men ;  in  another  shop,  there  are  thirty-three  men 
who  cannot  register,  and  you  will  find  that  there 
are  all  over  the  city  men  who  have  not  been  here 
a  year  who  are  as  good  citizens  as  we  lost. 

In  spite  of  this  the  increase  in  your  registry 
list  of  voters  is  2100  this  year  over  two  years  ago. 
Is  there  any  getting  around  this,  and  around  the 
increase  of  4070  payers  of  street  tax,  as  shown  by 
your  official  records  ? 

That  much  for  population.  Just  remember 
now  that  we  have  not  lost  population,  but  that 
we  have  gained,  by  the  records,  4070  street  tax 
payers  in  one  year,  and  that  your  registration 
books  show  that  we  gained  2140  voters  over  the 
registration  of  two  years  ago.  They  cannot  talk 
about  the  records  after  that,  because  the  town 
has  grown,  taking  five  members  of  a  family  to 
a  voter,  over  10,000  people  after  prohibition 
went  into  effect,  after  deducting  those  who  left 
on  account  of  prohibition. 

Let  me  go  one  step  further.  After  your  popu 
lation,  what  do  you  next  consider  as  going  to 
make  up  a  town  ? 

I  am  going  to  stick  to  the  home  because  it  is 
the  type  and  center  of  our  city,  of  our  civiliza 
tion.  Prosperous  homes  mean  a  prosperous  city  ; 
cheerless  homes,  an  unprosperous  town.  From 
the  comfortable  home,  with  its  ruddy  windows 

111 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

and  its  laughing  children,  streams  the  light  that 
illumines  every  department  of  trade  or  industry, 
whether  the  light  comes  from  the  cottage  or  a 
palace.  From  the  cheerless  and  desolate  home 
comes  the  chill  that  paralyzes  every  interest 
worth  preserving. 

When  you  go  into  a  home,  what  is  the  first 
thing  you  look  after  ?  It  is  the  hearthstone  — 
to  see  if  there  is  a  fire.  The  hearthstone  is  the 
heart  of  the  home,  and  the  fire  glowing  and 
sparkling,  with  the  little  children  gathered  about 
it,  ruddy-faced  and  happy,  is  to  the  house  what 
sunshine  is  to  God's  flowers.  It  is  about  the 
hearthstone  that  the  family  gathers.  There  you 
find  the  wife,  the  helpmate  of  the  husband  and 
his  joy,  who  has  shared  his  sorrow  and  his  trouble ; 
you  find  the  little  ones  cherished.  The  old  grand 
mother  in  the  corner,  smiling  and  peaceful,  her 
last,  best  days  blessed  and  softened  by  filial  love 
and  care. 

Think  about  the  picture  around  the  hearth 
stone  in  an  humble  home.  Did  you  ever  think 
about  grandmother  and  a  little  child?  Is  there 
any  love  on  this  earth  like  it  ?  Is  there  any  love 
as  sweet  and  pathetic?  See  the  way  they  sit 
about  the  hearthstone  of  the  home  !  How  they 
cling  to  each  other !  How  the  little  ones  clamber 
about  her  knees  and  look  into  her  face !  How 
the  old  heart  is  bathed  afresh  in  the  rapture  of 

112 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

the  child,  and  how  the  old,  withered  lips  are 
attuned  and  used  to  the  childish  prattle  !  How 
closely  they  cling  together  !  and  yet  how  diverse 
are  their  ways  !  The  old  grandmother,  with  the 
lengthening  shadows  falling  on  her  back  as  she 
walks  down  the  hill,  her  face  turned  towards  the 
skies  beyond  the  pearly  gates  of  which  she  can 
almost  hear  the  singing  of  the  hosts  waiting  to 
bid  her  welcome  ;  the  child,  turned  with  ardent 
face  to  the  attractions  and  contentions  of  the 
world,  with  the  rising  sun  falling  full  on  its  eyes. 

At  last  the  time  for  separation  comes.  As 
each  takes  its  God-given  way,  how  ready  to  go, 
and  yet  how  loth  to  part !  How  they  turn  as 
they  drift  away,  looking  one  to  another,  while 
the  parting  words  grow  fainter  and  fainter  and 
fainter,  until  they  fall  by  the  wayside  and  the 
child's  voice  is  lost  in  the  rising  clamor  of  the 
world,  and  her  voice  melts  away  in  the  kindling 
music  of  the  skies.  There  they  sit  about  the 
hearthstone,  the  grandma  and  the  child,  and 
between  them  the  wife,  holding  in  her  heart  the 
double  love  that  binds  them  together. 

Think  of-  the  master  of  this  home  —  father, 
son,  and  husband  in  one  —  as  he  works  at  his 
bench  or  walks  whistling  through  the  icy  night 
air,  happy  in  the  consciousness  that  his  loved 
ones  are  warm  and  snug  and  happy  in  their 
home.  What  would  he  take  for  the  conscious- 

113 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

ness  that  instead  of  huddling  comfortless  about  a 
chill  hearthstone,  the  fire  burns  brightly  for  them? 
What  would  you  take  to  rob  him  of  that  con 
sciousness  ?  Well,  now  keep  that  picture  in 
your  mind  while  I  tell  you  what  the  coal  dealers 
of  Atlanta  say  about  their  retail  trade  this 
winter ! 

Here  is  their  testimony !  Do  you  remember 
how  you  used  to  see  women  with  a  quarter  or  a 
fifty-cent  piece  shivering  at  the  coal  yards,  hurry 
ing  to  buy  a  handful  of  coal,  that  they  might 
get  home  where  their  little  ones  were  suffering? 
How  you  used  to  see  men  hurrying  through  the 
streets  each  with  a  basketful  of  coal  on  his  arm, 
knowing  that  at  home  the  breath  from  their 
lungs  was  almost  freezing  on  his  children's  lips  ? 
And  the  little  handcarts  that  used  to  fill  your 
streets,  carrying  a  handful  of  coal,  barely  enough 
to  give  a  child  a  taste  of  fire  ?  And  don't  you 
know  the  number  of  houses  there  were  that  in 
spite  of  all  this  were  cold  and  cheerless  and 
without  relief  ?  Where  are  the  people  who  used 
to  buy  a  pinch  of  coal,  and  the  handcarts  that 
used  to  haul  it  ?  They  are  gone  !  Mr.  Wilson 
testifies  :  "  There  has  been  a  remarkable  change  in 
my  business.  Men  that  used  to  buy  fifty  cents' 
worth  now  buy  a  ton.  I  used  to  have  twenty 
little  handcarts  to  deliver  coal  in;  now  I  use 
but  one,  and  I  have  double  my  two-horse  teams." 

114 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

Mr.  Bridger  testified  he  scarcely  has  a  call  for 
coal  on  credit  now.  Mr.  D'Alvigny  testifies  he 
cannot  get  enough  to  supply  the  demand.  Mr. 
John  T.  Stocks  says  there  is  twice  as  much  sold 
as  ever  before. 

Every  coal  dealer  testifies  that  there  has  been 
a  remarkable  increase  in  his  business.  Instead  of 
buying  it  haphazard  in  little  quantities,  when 
the  twenty-five  cents  that  bought  it  was  chanced 
between  the  barkeeper  and  the  coal  dealer,  they 
testify  without  break  that  the  people  have  laid 
in  twice  as  much  coal  as  ever  before  in  a  single 
fall,  that  they  buy  in  large  quantities  and  on 
cash  almost  entirely.  Houses  will  be  warmed 
this  winter  day  and  night  that  scarcely  knew 
what  fire  was  last  winter.  Ask  the  coal  dealers, 
and  if  their  testimony  convinces  you,  ask  if  it 
isn't  worth  something  to  accomplish  this.  .  .  . 

Let  us  take  the  question  of  getting  a  home. 
The  statistics  show  that  678  men  bought  homes 
in  the  last  two  years  against  153  men  who  bought 
homes  in  the  last  two  years  of  the  liquor  reign. 
Just  think  of  that !  There  are  678  men  in  two 
years  who  have  become  independent  home  own 
ers  against  153  who  became  home  owners  in  the 
last  two  years  of  liquor  ! 

Take  the  loan  and  building  associations.  I 
have  always  contended  that  they  are  the  most 
useful  institutions  in  a  city's  growth.  They  are 

115 


ORATIONS  AND   SPEECHES 

bulwarks  against  disorder  and  riot.  They  are 
better  than  regiments  of  soldiers  to  insure  the 
protection  of  life  and  property  against  a  possible 
mob.  There  were  six  of  these  institutions  in 
1885,  and  there  are  fifteen  to-night.  There  is  no 
mistaking  the  significance  of  that.  A  building 
and  loan  association  is  organized  only  when  there 
are  enough  men  with  a  surplus  of  money  to  make 
them  profitable. 

Six  were  sufficient  to  do  the  business  of  this 
town  two  years  ago  —  we  have  fifteen  now.  And 
the  working  people  of  Atlanta  are  paying  now 
for  homes  or  for  savings  through  this  one  agency, 
perhaps  $10,000  a  month,  or  $120,000  a  year,  that 
they  paid  for  something  else  when  liquor  was  in 
Atlanta.  Where  six  building  and  loan  associa 
tions  were  sufficient  to  do  the  business  of  this 
town,  that  is,  to  furnish  money  to  build  homes  on 
installments,  fifteen  are  required  now. 

Take  the  question  of  banks.  There  was  one 
savings  bank  here  in  1885 ;  to-day  there  are  four, 
or,  I  believe,  five.  One  man  testified  to  me  that 
he  has  $60,000  in  his  bank,  the  earnings  and  sav 
ings  of  the  working  people  in  this  city.  His  bank 
did  not  exist  in  Atlanta  two  years  ago.  Where 
did  that  money  go  then  ? 

We  had,  in  1885,  $1,300,000  banking  capital 
and  surplus.  In  the  last  two  years  we  have 
added  $1,325,000  in  capital  and  surplus,  making 

116 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

12,625,000  in  banks,  against  $1,300,000  two  years 
ago.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  record  like  that 
in  any  city  in  the  South.  In  two  years  we  have 
more  than  doubled  our  banking  capital  and  accu 
mulation,  and  that,  too,  without  counting  the  bank 
of  Mr.  Gould,  now  building  on  Decatur  Street,  or 
the  new  bank  whose  charter  is  advertised  for  by 
Messrs.  Adair,  Fitten,  and  others  ;  the  bank  of  my 
good  friend,  the  Hon.  David  Mayer,  who  will  soon 
have  in  a  bank  in  this  town  a  comfortable  for 
tune,  that  was  formerly  in  the  wholesale  liquor 
trade. 

There  is  nothing  more  necessary  to  Atlanta 
than  banking  capital.  We  all  agree  that  it  was 
once  her  trouble  and  reproach  that  she  had  less 
than  half  the  banking  capital  of  Southern  cities 
of  similar  size,  and  that  one  bank  in  Savannah 
had  more  capital  and  surplus  than  every  bank  in 
Atlanta.  That  is  what  we  needed,  and  we  have 
doubled  our  banking  capital  in  the  two  years  of 
prohibition.  .  .  . 

They  talk  about  manufacturers.  That  is  the 
life  of  a  city.  That  is  what  makes  Atlanta.  By 
the  census  of  1880  there  were  47  per  cent 
of  the  people  of  this  town  engaged  in  gainful 
pursuits.  Atlanta's  very  life  and  breath  is  and 
has  been  her  shops  and  factories. 

Now  take  the  record.  I  say  to  you  that  there 
has  been  added  one  million  of  dollars  to  the 

117 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

manufacturing  capital  of  this  city  in  the  last  two 
years,  and  that  no  two  years  of  her  previous  his 
tory  will  make  up  a  record  like  that.  Colonel 
G.  W.  Scott  gives  me  the  figures  on  guano.  He 
says  $250,000  have  been  spent  in  guano  factories 
in  this  county  in  the  last  two  years.  One  hun 
dred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars  have  been  spent 
in  reestablishing  the  Atlanta  bridge  works  by 
Mr.  Grant  Wilkins  and  Mr.  Miles ;  $50,000  for  a 
glass  factory ;  $150,000  for  a  new  cotton-seed  oil 
mill,  or  over  half  a  million  in  four  items.  It  is 
useless  for  me  to  go  over  the  list  of  industries 
that  have  been  added  or  enlarged.  But  I  tell 
you  it  reaches  one  million  of  dollars  in  two  years. 
Doesn't  that  look  like  a  dead  town  ? 

Take  the  men  who  had  already  invested  in 
manufacturing,  and  they  have  been  compelled  to 
increase  their  faculties  for  their  increased  business. 
Take  Boyd  &  Baxter,  who,  under  the  liquor 
reign,  worked  only  ten  or  twelve  hands,  are  now 
putting  up  a  seventy-thousand-dollar  plant  to 
manufacture  furniture ;  Mr.  Trowbridge  says  he 
is  actually  turning  off  orders,  for  he  can't  fill 
them.  The  fall  industries  have  swarmed  in  :  the 
starch  factory  folks  say,  "  We  came  here  under 
prohibition,  and  it  is  good  enough  for  us ;  busi 
ness  rushing."  A  soap  factory  established,  and 
the  owner  delighted ;  Norris  &  Co.,  a  shirt  fac 
tory,  and  Northrop's  shirt  factory  doubled ;  a 

118 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

site  just  sold  for  a  piano  factory,  and  the  capital 
up  for  it ;  Deloach  &  Bro.  added  $10,000  to  their 
machinery ;  Haiman's  plow  works,  dismantled 
when  prohibition  came  in,  are  now  booming,  with 
more  than  they  can  handle ;  the  E.  T.,  Va.  &  Ga. 
shops  increased  126  hands ;  Foote's  new  trunk 
factory  as  prosperous  as  even  its  genial  and  clever 
proprietor  deserves.  But  why  need  to  go  further  ? 
When  did  Atlanta  ever  in  two  years  add  $1,000,000 
to  her  manufacturing  capital  ? 

In  the  Constitution  this  morning  there  were 
some  interviews  asserting  that  Atlanta  had  de 
creased  in  property.  I  defend  Atlanta  against 
this  charge.  I  will  show  that  these  witnesses 
are  mistaken  —  honestly  mistaken,  I  doubt  not, 
but  still  mistaken.  Mr.  Traynham  says,  "It  is 
difficult  to  get  capital  carpenters  in  Atlanta." 
Mr.  May  just  below  him  says,  "  Put  an  advertise 
ment  in  the  papers  for  carpenters  and  it  brings 
them  by  the  dozen."  Now  one  of  these  gentle 
men  is  mistaken.  Traynham  says  you  can't  get 
them,  and  May  says  that  the  smallest  sort  of  an 
advertisement  will  bring  a  dozen.  Which  is 
wrong  ?  .  .  . 

I  tell  you,  gentlemen,  they  are  misleading  when 
they  tell  you  the  prosperity  of  this  town  is  dimin 
ished.  I  know  it.  I  have  studied  the  situation. 
I  have  studied  this  old  town  as  I  have  studied 
nothing  else  —  not  even  the  Bible,  and  I  know 

119 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

the  town  and  I  know  it  is  in  a  better  condition 
than  ever  before. 

Take  the  question  of  wages :  I  have  the  testi 
mony  of  fifty  men  on  the  fact  that  the  wages  are 
higher  than  ever  before,  or  in  the  last  ten  years. 
They  put  the  increase  from  15  to  50  per  cent. 

I  have  shown  you  the  home  industries  have 
increased,  that  the  real  estate  associations  have 
increased,  that  the  banking  capital  and  surplus 
have  increased.  I  have  the  statement  of  a  banker 
that  the  deposits  in  this  city  are  one  million  of 
dollars  more  to-night  than  they  were  a  year  ago. 
My  friend,  Jacob  Haas,  says  one  million  of  dollars 
have  gone  out  of  Atlanta.  Well,  if  so,  Atlanta 
has  made  more  money  in  the  past  two  years  than 
any  city  ever  did,  for  it  is  accumulated  here  by 
the  millions.  Why,  Mr.  Haas  has  just  started 
a  bank  himself,  and  he  is  the  happiest  man  in 
Atlanta.  He  is  so  happy  about  it  that  it  is  ru 
mored  that  he  roosts  at  the  bank  at  night.  The 
money  just  rolls  into  his  vaults,  and  he  is  so  happy. 
When  you  ask  him  about  his  bank,  he  cannot  find 
words  to  express  it.  He  just  puts  his  hand  on 
his  heart  and  rolls  his  eyes  up  to  the  skies. 

It  is  another  case  of  where  the  witness  is  de 
lighted  with  his  own  business,  but  is  afraid  it  is 
hurting  somebody  else.  My  special  friend,  Bob 
Lowry,  admits  that  he  has  had  better  business  in 
his  bank  the  past  year  than  ever  in  his  life,  and 

120 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

he  is  going  to  enlarge  it  into  a  stock  company, 
and  could  get  a  million  dollars'  capital  on  the 
showing  of  his  books  for  the  past  year.  But  he, 
too,  is  afraid  it  has  hurt  somebody  else.  It  has 
helped  him,  but  he  thinks  it  will  hurt  the  town. 

But  let  me  talk  about  Mr.  Haas  and  his  real 
estate  a  little.  He  says  he  does  not  issue  any 
distress  warrants  now  —  he  admits  he  doesn't  is 
sue  them,  you  see,  and  which  is  good  —  because  his 
tenants  take  the  pony  homestead  on  him.  Well, 
if  I  were  one  of  his  tenants  and  wanted  to  get 
away  from  him,  I  would  take  a  horse  homestead. 
Mr.  Haas  is  in  the  Capital  City  Real  Estate  Com 
pany.  His  company  has  bought  real  estate  at  a 
cost  of  8130,000.  It  is  assessed  by  his  board  at 
8160,000,  and  Mr.  Haas  has  stated  it  is  worth 
$200,000.  Any  loss  there?  The  company  had 
one  public  sale.  It  sold,  for  $32,000,  property 
that  cost  a  short  time  before  $20,000.  They  sold 
the  Eiseman  store  for  $35,000  the  other  day,  and 
it  cost  $27,500.  Any  loss  there  ? 

I  want  to  talk  to  you  about  real  estate.  The 
building  of  houses  is  the  cheapest  thing  and  the 
most  unnecessary  thing  if  you  have  enough  for 
your  population.  A  town  with  too  many  houses 
and  too  few  people  and  too  few  factories  and 
railroads  is  the  poorest  sort  of  a  town.  Now,  in 
1885,  we  had  too  many  houses  and  too  few  banks 
and  manufactories.  I  have  shown  you  how  we 

121 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

have  added  to  our  banks  and  manufactories; 
how  we  put  $450,000  cash  into  the  Hawkinsville 
road  by  private  subscription.  When  did  Atlanta 
ever  do  that  before  ?  When  did  she  ever  put 
one  third  as  much  by  private  subscription  into  a 
railroad  ?  Now  to  show  you  how  cheap  build 
ing  is.  Take  the  additional  capital  and  surplus 
in  our  banks  over  two  years  ago,  the  $450,000 
put  into  the  building  pof  the  Hawkinsville  Rail 
road  and  the  surplus  of  two  years  in  our  insurance 
company  and  that  would  give  you  enough  money 
to  build  a  row  of  cottages  six  miles  long  and  a 
row  of  three-story  brick  stores  from  the  Constitu 
tion  office  to  the  Georgia  railroad  depot.  Think 
of  that !  This  money  has  not  gone  away.  It 
has  not  been  scared  away  from  Atlanta.  It  has 
stayed  here.  It  is  ready  to  invest  in  whatever 
Atlanta  needs  most.  It  is  here  and  it  is  going 
to  stay  here,  and  continue  Atlanta's  growth  and 
prosperity. 

Now,  in  spite  of  the  130  barrooms  vacated, 
and  the  people  who  left,  we  have  filled  the 
vacant  buildings,  and  Atlanta's  homes  and  stores 
are  to-day  packed  as  never  before !  I  have  got 
the  statements  of  every  real  estate  agent  in  this 
city,  but  one.  They  say  they  have  more  houses 
on  their  rent  lists  than  ever  before,  and  fewer 
vacant  houses.  Two  of  them  lately  advertised 
for  100  houses.  They  all  say  they  could  rent 

122 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

scores  of  houses  if  they  had  them.  Go  ask 
them! 

Next  spring  you  will  see  immense  building 
again,  no  matter  which  way  the  election  goes. 

But  do  not  think  there  has  been  no  building. 
They  advertise  an  interview  with  Mr.  Gould 
and  assert  that  he  "is  building  the  only  brick 
store  built  here  since  prohibition."  That  is  their 
assertion.  I  have  a  list  here  of  eleven  brick 
stores  on  Decatur  Street  built  since  prohibition, 
on  the  very  street,  mind  you,  on  which  Mr. 
Gould  is  building.  Mr.  S.  M.  Inman  states  that 
he  has  built  eight  brick  stores  himself  since 
prohibition  —  started  and  finished  them  —  and 
rented  every  one  of  them  and  gets  10  per  cent 
on  the  investment.  And  yet  they  say  Mr. 
Gould  is  building  the  only  brick  store  built  in 
Atlanta  since  prohibition. 

Take  the  question  of  rent.  Suppose  rents 
had  gone  up  sharply  in  the  last  two  years,  what 
a  howl  there  would  have  been  against  prohibition 
for  putting  up  rents !  Is  it  an  unmixed  evil 
now  that  rents  fell  a  little  ?  Three  fourths  of 
the  people  are  renters,  and  if  rents  have  been  too 
high,  it  is  but  right  that  they  should  come  down 
to  a  proper  level. 

But  I  don't  believe  they  have  done  so.  Mr. 
Headly  complains  that  his  rents  have  decreased. 
That  is  doubtless  true.  He  rented  largely  to 

123 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

barrooms  and  gambling  saloons.  There  was 
Paul  Jones,  wholesale  liquors,  in  one  of  his 
stores.  The  Big  Bonanza  had  a  barrooom  down 
stairs  and  gambling  room  upstairs.  There  was 
Kenny  &  Werner  and  the  Reading  Room  billiard 
room.  Then  there  was  Thurman's  saloon  out  on 
Marietta,  and  Hunter's  saloon  out  there. 

Now,  property  brings  more  rent  for  saloons 
and  gambling  than  it  will  for  anything  else ; 
it  ought  to.  Now  Mr.  Headly's  property  which 
rented  for  that  purpose  has  decreased.  The 
offer  he  says  he  got  of  13000  for  one  place  now 
renting  for  much  less  is,  I  learn,  from  a  saloon 
man  who  wants  it  downstairs  and  upstairs. 
But  has  Mr.  Headly  the  right  to  ask  Atlanta  to 
vote  liquor  back  so  that  he  can  get  a  barroom 
back  in  his  Big  Bonanza  and  increased  rent 
therefor  ?  He  would  not  ask  it ! 

But  now  take  the  property  he  owns  that  did 
not  rent  for  barroom  purposes.  It  is  the  Headly 
building.  It  is  packed  with  tenants  who  pay  as 
well  as  ever.  Messrs.  Goode  &  Co.  have  the 
first  floor.  They  got  it  from  Mr.  Headly  under 
a  lease  they  made  under  liquor.  Since  prohibi 
tion  they  have  been  offered  $500  per  annum 
advance  if  they  would  give  it  up,  and  they  have 
had  a  half-dozen  applications  for  it.  That  is  a 
piece  of  Mr.  Headly's  property  that  has  always 
rented  for  regular  business.  One  of  the  tenants 

124 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

of  that  building  has  been  offered  1500  a  year 
increase  if  he  would  give  it  up.  Take  the 
Connally  building.  It  has  a  saloon  in  it.  There 
was  a  decrease  of  $15  a  month  in  the  rent  of 
that  saloon.  They  quote  that,  and  leave  the 
impression  that  the  building  has  lost  in  rents. 
But  there  are  three  stores  in  that  building,  and 
they  have  increased  in  rent  $25  a  month.  Here 
is  175  a  month  increase  in  rent  in  one  building 
in  the  stores,  against  $15  a  month  decrease  in 
the  barroom  end  of  it.  Yet  it  is  used  as  an  ex 
ample  of  how  rents  have  diminished.  Take  Mr. 
Traynham.  He  quotes  one  or  two  pieces  of  his 
property,  the  rents  on  which  have  decreased. 
Mr.  J.  W.  Goldsmith  went  for  one  and  asked 
him,  "  Mr.  Traynham,  is  not  the  rental  income 
of  your  entire  property  greater  now  than  it  was 
in  1885  ?  "  Mr.  Traynham  replied  that  it  was  ; 
that  he  had  not  a  single  vacant  house  now.  So 
it  goes.  There  may  be  a  decreased  rent  here 
or  there,  but  the  sum  total  is  bigger,  and  it  is 
paid  better  and  more  promptly.  My  friends, 
this  question  is  worth  studying.  Go  to  the  books 
of  every  real  estate  agent  in  Atlanta.  They  will 
tell  you  they  have  sold  more  property  this  year, 
and  at  better  prices,  than  in  1885.  Colonel 
Adair  has  just  said  his  books  show  an  increase 
of  $356,000  over  1885.  Can  this  testimony  be 
doubted  ? 

125 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

Mr.  Bob  Richards  says  he  is  afraid  that  if 
liquor  does  not  come  back  here,  there  will  be 
riots.  I  do  not  connect  the  anti-prohibition 
cause  in  Atlanta  with  the  anarchists.  I  regret 
sincerely  that  a  remark  I  made  in  my  last  speech 
was  so  construed.  I  have  not  said  a  word  of 
willful  abuse,  and  I  will  not.  But  it  is  not  the 
absence  of  liquor  that  makes  riots;  it  is  the 
presence  of  it.  You  take  the  place  in  which 
the  anarchists'  plots  were  formed,  and  it  was  a 
saloon.  Take  the  place  in  which  their  papers 
are  published ;  it  is  over  saloons.  Herr  Most 
and  the  men  who  met  to  sympathize  with  them 
in  New  York  met  in  a  saloon.  Now  I  shall  join 
hands  with  any  party  to  improve  the  condition 
of  Atlanta,  no  matter  how  this  election  may  go, 
but  how  can  the  anti-prohibitionists  call  on  the 
prohibitionists  to  help  quell  the  storm  raised  by  the 
return  of  liquor  to  Atlanta  when  they  have  con 
stantly  abused  them  as  villains,  hypocrites,  and 
drunkards  and  liars  ?  As  soon  might  Robespierre 
have  called  on  the  Girondists  in  France  to  stem 
the  tumult  that  he  raised,  and  in  the  midst  of 
which  he  lost  his  head. 

My  friends,  the  road  of  peace  in  Atlanta  is  the 
road  of  fairness  and  frankness.  By  a  local  vote 
of  this  people  this  city  was  committed  to  the 
experiment  of  prohibition.  By  that  vote  Atlanta 
was  to  test  for  the  first  time  whether  the  liquor 

126 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

traffic  can  be  throttled  in  cities  and  held  in  sub 
jection.  Civilization  has  a  right  to  demand,  and 
Atlanta  can  hardly  refuse,  .that  this  trial  shall  be 
full  and  perfect.  There  will  be  no  peace  in 
Atlanta  until  this  trial  has  been  made.  The 
prohibitionists  cannot  surrender  their  conscience 
on  a  trial  of  hardly  twelve  months,  with  ob 
structions  thrown  constantly  in  its  way.  I  will 
stand,  as  they  will  stand,  for  a  fair  trial.  Give 
it  two  years.  Everything  is  now  ready  to  test 
it  fairly.  If  at  the  end  of  that  time  it  has  not 
demonstrated  its  success,  and  has  not  shown 
that  it  prospers  this  city  in  its  business  and  its 
morals,  then  I  tell  you  frankly  I  will  join  in  any 
movement  to  try  some  other  method  of  suppress 
ing  liquor  drinking  in  Atlanta.  But  until  it  has 
had  this  trial,  neither  I  nor  a  prohibitionist  in  this 
city  can  in  self-respect  surrender  that  position. 
The  way  to  peace  is  to  give  prohibition  a  thou 
sand  majority,  then  pass  the  dispensary  bill, 
amend  the  law  as  it  should  be  amended,  and  let 
it  stand  or  fall  on  the  record  it  makes  in  the  next 
two  years. 

Now  for  a  last  word,  my  friends.  I  never 
spoke  to  you  from  deeper  conviction  than  I  speak 
to-night.  I  beg  of  you  in  the  interest  of  peace 
and  fairness  to  give  this  experiment  a  full  trial. 
Note  what  it  has  done  in  a  year  of  imperfect 
trial.  Give  it  two  years  more  that  it  may 

127 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

demonstrate  what  it  can  do.     Then  if  it  fails,  it 
will  fail ;  if  it  is  good,  it  will  stand. 

My  friends,  hesitate  before  you  vote  liquor 
back  into  Atlanta,  now  that  it  is  shut  out. 
Don't  trust  it.  It  is  powerful,  aggressive,  and 
universal  in  its  attacks.  To-night  it  enters  an 
humble  home  to  strike  the  roses  from  a  woman's 
cheek,  and  to-morrow  it  challenges  this  Repub 
lic  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  To-day  it  strikes  a 
crust  from  the  lips  of  a  starving  child,  and  to 
morrow  levies  tribute  from  the  government  it 
self.  There  is  no  cottage  in  this  city  humble 
enough  to  escape  it — no  palace  strong  enough  to 
shut  it  out.  It  defies  the  law  when  it  cannot 
coerce  suffrage.  It  is  flexible  to  cajole,  but 
merciless  in  victory.  It  is  the  mortal  enemy  of 
peace  and  order.  The  despoiler  of  men,  the 
terror  of  women,  the  cloud  that  shadows  the  face 
of  children,  the  demon  that  has  dug  more  graves 
and  sent  more  souls  unshrived  to  judgment 
than  all  the  pestilences  that  have  wasted  life 
since  God  sent  the  plagues  to  Egypt,  and  all  the 
wars  that  have  been  fought  since  Joshua  stood 
beyond  Jericho.  Oh,  my  countrymen,  loving 
God  and  humanity,  do  not  bring  this  grand  old 
city  again  under  the  dominion  of  that  power !  It 
can  profit  no  man  by  its  return.  It  can  uplift 
no  industry,  revive  no  interest,  remedy  no  wrong. 
You  know  that  it  cannot.  It  comes  to  destroy, 

128 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

and  it  shall  profit  mainly  by  the  ruin  of  your 
sons  or  mine.  It  comes  to  mislead  human  souls 
and  to  crush  human  hearts  under  its  rumbling 
wheels.  It  comes  to  destroy  the  wife's  love  into 
despair,  and  her  pride  into  shame.  It  comes  to 
still  the  laughter  on  the  lips  of  little  children. 
It  comes  to  stifle  all  the  music  of  the  home  and 
fill  it  with  silence  and  desolation.  It  comes  to 
ruin  your  body  and  mind,  to  wreck  your  home, 
and  it  knows  that  it  must  measure  its  prosperity 
by  the  swiftness  and  certainty  with  which  it 
wrecks  this  work.  Now  will  you  vote  it  back  ? 
Why  are  you  asked  to  vote  it  back  ?  It  is 
claimed  that  it  has  had  a  fair  trial.  It  has  not 
had  a  fair  trial,  and  you  know  it.  This  issue 
should  not  have  been  forced  on  us  at  this  time. 
It  is  claimed  that  it  has  hurt  your  city.  I  show 
you  to-night  that  it  has  prospered  it  beyond  par 
allel  or  precedent.  But  it  is  said  we  will  get 
peace  if  we  bring  it  back.  Now  we  all  want 
peace.  We  all  want  this  agitation  stopped.  I 
tell  you  the  way  to  stop  it  is  to  give  prohibi 
tion  a  fair  trial.  Give  it  the  trial  its  magnitude 
demands;  the  trial  that  its  supporters  are  deter 
mined  under  God's  mercy  it  shall  have  in  this 
town  sooner  or  later.  It  has  not  had  a  fair  trial. 
Now  it  is  ready  for  trial.  The  liquor  licenses 
have  expired,  the  wine  rooms  will  be  wiped  out, 
the  machinery  is  oiled,  and  the  decks  are  cleared 
K  129 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

for  action.  Give  prohibition  two  years'  trial 
from  the  26th  of  November,  and  two  years  from 
now  it  will  stand  or  fall  on  its  merits  without 
agitation  or  disturbance. 

If  you  are  in  doubt  about  what  you  should 
do,  give  us  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  Give  the 
doubt  to  the  churches  of  this  city  that  stand  un 
broken  in  this  cause.  Give  the  doubt  to  the 
twenty  thousand  prayers  that  ascend  nightly 
for  this  cause  from  the  women  and  children  of 
Atlanta  —  prayers  uttered  so  silently  that  you 
cannot  catch  their  whispered  utterance,  but  so 
sincerely  that  they  speed  their  soft  entreaty 
through  the  singing  hosts  of  heaven  into  the 
heart  of  the  living  God.  If  you  are  in  doubt  as 
to  what  your  duty  is,  turn  for  this  once  to  your 
old  mother,  whose  gray  hairs  shall  plead  with 
you  as  nothing  else  should  —  remember  how  she 
has  loved  you  all  her  life  and  how  her  heart 
yearns  for  you  now.  Take  her  old  hand  in 
yours,  look  into  her  eyes  fearlessly  as  you  did 
when  you  were  a  barefoot  boy,  and  say,  "  I  have 
run  my  politics  all  my  life,  and  to-day  I  am 
going  to  give  one  vote  for  you.  How  shall  I 
cast  it  ?  "  Watch  the  tears  start  from  her  shin 
ing  eyes,  feel  the  lump  rising  in  your  throat,  and 
tell  me  if  that  is  not  better  than  "personal 
liberty."  If  you  are  in  doubt,  ask  your  wife; 
ask  her  who  years  ago  put  her  hand  in  yours, 

130 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

and,  adoring  and  trusting,  left  the  old  home  nest 
and  went  with  you  into  the  unknown  world  ; 
remember  how  she  has  stood  by  you  when  all 
else  forsook ;  how  she  has  lived  only  in  your  life, 
and  carried  your  sorrows  as  her  own,  and  ask 
her  how  you  shall  vote. 

I  do  not  believe  that  women  should  counsel 
men  in  politics,  but  this  question  is  deeper  than 
politics.  Your  wife  need  not  tell  you  how  to 
vote  on  the  tariff,  or  on  candidates,  or  on  any 
political  issue,  but  this  is  her  election  as  well  as 
yours.  On  this  jeopardy  is  staked  the  home 
you  builded  together,  the  happiness  you  have 
had  together,  and  the  welfare  of  the  little  chil 
dren  in  whose  veins  your  blood  and  hers  run 
commingled.  Her  stake  and  theirs  on  this  elec 
tion  is  greater  than  yours.  Then  ask  her,  if  you 
have  any  doubt,  how  you  should  vote  on  that 
day. 

Now  a  word  to  the  good  women  here.  You 
can  do  great  work  quietly  and  gently  in  your 
homes  for  this  cause  and  for  the  good  of  your 
city.  You  can  do  this  work  in  the  home  circle, 
where  no  man  can  say  you  nay. 

Mothers,  go  to  your  son  on  election  morning, 
call  him  back  to  the  time  when  he  learned  God's 
name  at  your  knees,  and  wake  when  he  would 
in  the  night,  he  would  find  your  soft  eyes  above 
him  and  your  loving  hands  about  him,  and  say, 

131 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

"  My  son,  find  your  way  this  morning  in  mem 
ory  to  those  days  when  nothing  stood  between 
us,  and  when  these  hands  sheltered  and  pro 
tected  you." 

Wives,  go  to  your  husbands  that  morning. 
Not  in  pique  or  criticism,  but  with  a  love  and 
tenderness  that  shall  break  through  his  pride 
or  indifference,  lay  his  hand  lovingly  on  the 
heads  of  the  little  ones,  the  pride  of  his  life  and 
yours  —  oh,  you  who  went  down  into  the  very 
jaws  of  death  that  you  might  give  them  to  him ! 
—  and  say,  "My  husband,  whatever  you  do  to 
day,  do  it  for  these  little  ones  and  for  me." 

Now,  my  friends,  I  have  done.  What  I  have 
spoken  has  been  in  sober  earnestness  and  truth.  If 
what  I  have  said  has  impressed  you,  I  beg  of  you  to 
let  the  impression  deepen  rather  than  pass  away, 
for  I  know  and  you  know  that  issue  goes  deeper 
than  words  can  go.  It  involves  thousands  of 
homes  redeemed  from  want  and  desolation ;  it 
involves  thousands  of  hearts  now  rejoicing  that 
late  were  breaking ;  it  involves  the  fate  of  this 
tremendous  experiment  that  Atlanta  must  settle 
for  the  American  people.  Against  it  there  is 
nothing  but  the  whim  of  personal  liberty.  Your 
city  has  prospered  under  prohibition  as  it  has 
never  prospered  before.  If  you  are  a  merchant 
or  a  manufacturer,  your  books  will  tell  you  this. 
You  know  that  you  have  prospered  this  year  in 

132 


A  PLEA  FOR  PROHIBITION 

your  business ;  ask  your  neighbor  of  his  business. 
Look  abroad  about  you  on  these  bustling  streets, 
on  these  busy  stores,  on  these  shops  and  fac 
tories  in  which  the  fires  scarcely  ever  die,  and  in 
which  the  workmen  are  never  idle,  and  then 
vote  in  the  light  of  reason  and  of  conscience, 
and  however  you  vote,  may  God  bless  you,  and 
the  city  you  love  so  well. 


133 


AGAINST   CENTRALIZATION 

An  oration  delivered  before  the  Literary  Societies  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Virginia,  June  25,  1889 

Mr.  President,  ladies  and  gentlemen:  In  thank 
ing  you  for  this  cordial  —  this  Virginia  —  wel 
come,  let  me  say  that  it  satisfies  my  heart  to 
be  with  you  to-day.  This  is  my  alma  mater. 
Kind,  in  the  tolerant  patience  with  which  she 
winnowed  the  chaff  of  idle  days  and  idler  nights 
that  she  might  find  for  me  the  grain  of  knowl 
edge  and  of  truth,  and  in  the  charity  with 
which  she  sealed  in  sorrow  rather  than  in  anger 
my  brief  but  stormy  career  within  these  walls. 
Kinder  yet,  that  her  old  heart  has  turned  lov 
ingly  after  the  lapse  of  twenty  years  to  her 
scapegrace  son  in  a  distant  State,  and,  recalling 
him  with  this  honorable  commission,  has  sum 
moned  him  to  her  old  place  at  her  knees.  Here 
at  her  feet,  with  the  glory  of  her  presence  break 
ing  all  about  me,  let  me  testify  that  the  years 
have  but  deepened  my  reverence  and  my  love, 
and  my  heart  has  owned  the  magical  tenderness 
of  the  emotions  first  kindled  amid  these  sacred 
scenes.  That  which  was  unworthy  has  faded  — 
that  which  was  good  has  abided.  Faded  the 

134 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

memory  of  the  tempestuous  dike  and  the  riot 
ous  kalathump ;  dimmed  the  memory  of  that 
society,  now  happily  extinct,  but  then  famous 
as  "  The  Nippers  from  Peru " ;  forgotten  even 
the  glad  exultation  of  those  days  when  the 
neighboring  mountaineer  in  the  pride  of  his 
breezy  heights  brought  down  the  bandaged  bear 
to  give  battle  to  the  urban  dog.  Forgotten  all 
those  follies,  and,  let  us  hope,  forgiven.  But, 
enduring  in  heart  and  in  brain,  the  exhaustless 
splendor  of  those  golden  days  —  the  deep  and 
pure  inspiration  of  these  academic  shades,  the 
kindly  admonition  and  wisdom  of  the  masters, 
the  generous  ardor  of  our  mimic  contests,  and 
that  loving  comradeship  that  laughed  at  separa 
tion  and  has  lived  beyond  the  grave.  Enduring 
and  hallowed,  blessed  be  God,  the  strange  and 
wild  ambitions  that  startled  my  boyish  heart  as 
amid  these  dim  corridors,  oh !  my  mother,  the 
stirring  of  unseen  wings  in  thy  mighty  past 
caught  my  careless  ear,  and  the  dazzling  ideals 
of  thy  future  were  revealed  to  my  wondering 
sight. 

Gentlemen  of  the  literary  societies,  I  have  no 
studied  oration  for  you  to-day.  A  life  busy 
beyond  its  capacities  has  given  scanty  time  for 
preparation,  but  from  a  loving  heart  I  shall 
speak  to  you  this  morning  in  comradely  sympathy 
of  that  which  concerns  us  nearly. 

135 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

Will  you  allow  me  to  say  that  the  anxiety  that 
always  possesses  me  when  I  address  my  young 
countrymen  is  to-day  quickened  to  the  point  of 
consecration  ?  For  the  first  time  in  man's  respon 
sibility  I  speak  in  Virginia  to  Virginia.  Beyond 
its  ancient  glories  that  made  it  matchless  among 
States,  its  later  martyrdom  has  made  it  the 
Mecca  of  my  people.  It  was  on  these  hills  that 
our  fathers  gave  new  and  deeper  meaning  to 
heroism,  and  advanced  the  world  in  honor  !  It  is 
in  these  valleys  that  our  dead  lie  sleeping.  Out 
there  is  Appomattox,  where  on  every  ragged  gray 
cap  the  Lord  God  Almighty  laid  the  sword  of  His 
imperishable  knighthood.  Beyond  is  Petersburg, 
where  he  whose  name  I  bear,  and  who  was  prince 
to  me  among  men,  dropped  his  stainless  sword  and 
yielded  up  his  stainless  life.  Dear  to  me,  sir,  are  the 
people  among  whom  my  father  died  —  sacred  to 
me,  sir,  the  soil  that  drank  his  precious  blood. 
From  a  heart  stirred  by  these  emotions  and  sobered 
by  these  memories,  let  me  speak  to  you  to-day,  my 
countrymen,  and  God  give  me  wisdom  to  speak 
aright  and  the  words  wherewithal  to  challenge 
and  hold  your  attention. 

We  are  standing  in  the  daybreak  of  the  second 
century  of  this  Republic.  The  fixed  stars  are 
fading  from  the  sky,  and  we  grope  in  uncertain 
light.  Strange  shapes  have  come  with  the  night. 
Established  ways  are  lost  —  new  roads  perplex, 

136 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

and  widening  fields  stretch  beyond  the  sight. 
The  unrest  of  dawn  impels  us  to  and  fro  —  but 
Doubt  stalks  amid  the  confusion,  and  even  on  the 
beaten  paths  the  shifting  crowds  are  halted,  and 
from  the  shadows  the  sentries  cry,  "  Who  comes 
there  ? "  In  the  obscurity  of  the  morning  tre 
mendous  forces  are  at  work.  Nothing  is  stead 
fast  or  approved.  The  miracles  of  the  present 
belie  the  simple  truths  of  the  past.  The  Church 
is  besieged  from  without  and  betrayed  from 
within.  Behind  the  courts  smolders  the  rioter's 
torch  and  looms  the  gibbet  of  the  anarchists. 
Government  is  the  contention  of  partisans  and 
the  prey  of  spoilsmen.  Trade  is  restless  in  the 
grasp  of  monopoly,  and  commerce  shackled  with 
limitation.  The  cities  are  swollen  and  the  fields 
are  stripped.  Splendor  streams  from  the  castle, 
and  squalor  crouches  in  the  home.  The  universal 
brotherhood  is  dissolving,  and  the  people  are 
huddling  into  classes.  The  hiss  of  the  Nihilist 
disturbs  the  covert,  and  the  roar  of  the  mob 
murmurs  along  the  highway.  Amid  it  all 
beats  the  great  American  heart  undismayed, 
and  standing  fast  by  the  challenge  of  his  con 
science,  the  citizen  of  the  Republic,  tranquil  and 
resolute,  notes  the  drifting  of  the  spectral  cur 
rents,  and  calmly  awaits  the  full  disclosures  of 
the  day. 

Who  shall  be  the  heralds  of  this  coming  day  ? 
137 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

Who  shall  thread  the  way  of  honor  and  safety 
through  these  besetting  problems  ?  Who  shall 
rally  the  people  to  the  defense  of  their  liberties 
and  stir  them  until  they  shall  cry  aloud  to  be 
led  against  the  enemies  of  the  Republic?  You, 
my  countrymen,  you !  The  university  is  the 
training  camp  of  the  future,  the  scholar  the 
champion  of  the  coming  years.  Napoleon  over 
ran  Europe  with  drum  tap  and  bivouac  —  the 
next  Napoleon  shall  form  his  battalions  at  the 
tap  of  the  school-house  bell,  and  his  captains  shall 
come  with  cap  and  gown.  Waterloo  was  won 
at  Oxford  —  Sedan  at  Berlin.  So  Germany 
plants  her  colleges  in  the  shadow  of  the  French 
forts,  and  the  professor  smiles  amid  his  students 
as  he  notes  the  sentinel  stalking  against  the  sky. 
The  farmer  has  learned  that  brains  mix  better 
with  his  soil  than  the  waste  of  sea  birds,  and  the 
professor  walks  by  his  side  as  he  spreads  the 
showers  in  the  verdure  of  his  fields,  and  locks 
the  sunshine  in  the  glory  of  his  harvest.  A 
button  is  pressed  by  a  child's  finger,  and  the 
work  of  a  million  men  is  done.  The  hand  is 
nothing  —  the  brain  everything.  Physical  prow 
ess  has  had  its  day,  and  the  age  of  reason  has 
come.  The  lion-hearted  Richard  challenging 
Saladin  to  single  combat  is  absurd,  for  even  Gog 
and  Magog  shall  wage  the  Armageddon  from 
their  closets  and  look  not  upon  the  blood  that 

138 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

runs  to  the  bridle  bit.  Science  is  everything ! 
She  butchers  a  hog  in  Chicago,  draws  Boston 
within  five  hours  of  New  York,  renews  the 
famished  soil,  routs  her  viewless  bondsmen 
from  the  electric  center  of  the  earth,  and  then 
turns  to  watch  the  new  Icarus  as,  mounting  in 
his  flight  to  the  sun,  he  darkens  the  burnished  ceil 
ing  of  the  sky  with  the  shadow  of  his  wing. 

Learning  is  supreme,  and  you  are  its  prophets. 
Here  the  Olympic  games  of  the  Republic,  and 
you  its  chosen  athletes.  It  is  yours,  then,  to 
grapple  with  these  problems,  to  confront  and 
master  these  dangers.  Yours  to  decide  whether 
the  tremendous  forces  of  this  Republic  shall  be  kept 
in  balance,  or  whether,  unbalanced,  they  shall  bring 
chaos ;  whether  60,000,000  men  are  capable  of  self- 
government,  or  whether,  liberty  shall  be  lost  to  them 
who  would  give  their  lives  to  maintain  it.  Your 
responsibility  is  appalling.  You  stand  in  the 
pass  behind  which  the  world's  liberties  are 
guarded.  This  government  carries  the  hopes  of 
the  human  race.  Blot  out  the  beacon  that  lights 
the  portals  of  this  Republic,  and  the  world  is 
adrift  again.  But  save  the  Republic ;  establish 
the  light  of  its  beacon  over  the  troubled  waters, 
and  one  by  one  the  nations  of  the  earth  shall  drop 
anchor  and  be  at  rest  in  the  harbor  of  universal 
liberty.  Let  one  who  loves  his  Republic  as  he  loves 
his  life,  and  whose  heart  is  thrilled  with  the  ma  j  esty 

139 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

of  its  mission,  speak  to  you  now  of  the  dangers 
that  threaten  its  peace  and  prosperity,  and  the 
means  by  which  they  may  be  honorably  averted. 

The  unmistakable  danger  that  threatens  free 
government  in  America  is  the  increasing  tend 
ency  to  concentrate  in  the  Federal  government 
powers  and  privileges  that  should  be  left  with 
the  States,  and  to  create  powers  that  neither  the 
State  nor  Federal  government  should  have.  Let 
it  be  understood  at  once  that  in  discussing  this 
question  I  seek  to  revive  no  dead  issue.  We 
know  precisely  what  was  put  to  the  issue  of  the 
sword,  and  what  was  settled  thereby.  The  right 
of  a  State  to  leave  this  Union  was  denied,  and 
the  denial  made  good  forever.  But  the  sover 
eignty  of  the  States  in  the  Union  was  never  in 
volved,  and  the  Republic  that  survived  the  storm 
was,  in  the  words  of  the  Supreme  Court,  "an 
indissoluble  Union  of  indestructible  States." 
Let  us  stand  on  this  decree  and  turn  our  faces  to 
the  future ! 

It  is  not  strange  that  there  should  be  a  tend 
ency  to  centralization  in  our  government.  This 
disposition  was  the  legacy  of  the  war.  Steam 
and  electricity  have  emphasized  it  by  bringing 
the  people  closer  together.  The  splendor  of  a 
central  government  dazzles  the  unthinking;  its 
opulence  tempts  the  poor  and  the  avaricious ;  its 
strength  assures  the  rich  and  the  timid ;  its  pat- 

140 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

ronage  incites  the  spoilsmen  and  its  powers  in 
flame  the  partisan. 

And  so  we  have  paternalism  run  mad.  The 
merchant  asks  the  government  to  control  the 
arteries  of  trade,  the  manufacturer  asks  that  his 
product  be  protected,  the  rich  ask  for  an  army, 
and  the  unfortunate  for  help  —  this  man  for 
schools  and  that  for  subsidy.  The  partisan  pro 
claims,  amid  the  clamor,  that  the  source  of  largess 
must  be  the  seat  of  power,  and  demands  that 
the  ballot  boxes  of  the  States  be  hedged  by  Fed 
eral  bayonets.  The  centrifugal  force  of  our  sys 
tem  is  weakened,  centripetal  force  is  increased, 
and  the  revolving  spheres  are  veering  inward 
from  their  orbits.  There  are  strong  men  who 
rejoice  in  this  unbalancing,  and  deliberately  con 
tend  that  the  center  is  the  true  repository  of  power 
and  source  of  privilege  —  men  who,  were  they 
charged  with  the  solar  system,  would  shred  the 
planets  into  the  sun,  and,  exulting  in  the  sudden 
splendor,  little  reck  that  they  had  kindled  the 
conflagration  that  presages  universal  nights ! 
Thus  the  States  are  dwarfed  and  the  Nation 
magnified  —  and  to  govern  a  people  who  can 
best  govern  themselves,  the  central  authority  is 
made  stronger  and  more  splendid  ! 

Concurrent  with  this  political  drift  is  another 
movement,  less  formal  perhaps,  but  not  less  dan 
gerous  —  the  consolidation  of  capital.  I  hesitate 

141 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

to  discuss  this  phase  of  the  subject,  for  of  all 
men  I  despise  most  cordially  the  demagogue  who 
panders  to  the  prejudice  of  the  poor  by  abuse  of 
the  rich.  But  no  man  can  note  the  encroachment 
in  this  country  of  what  may  be  called  "  the 
money  power"  on  the  rights  of  the  individual, 
without  feeling  that  the  time  is  approaching 
when  the  issue  between  plutocracy  and  the 
people  will  be  forced  to  trial.  The  world  has 
not  seen,  nor  has  the  mind  of  man  conceived,  of 
such  miraculous  wealth  gathering  as  are  every 
day  tales  to  us.  Aladdin's  lamp  is  dimmed,  and 
Monte  Cristo  becomes  commonplace  when  com 
pared  to  our  magicians  of  finance  and  trade. 
The  seeds  of  a  luxury  that  even  now  surpasses 
that  of  Rome  or  Corinth,  and  has  only  yet  put 
forth  its  first  flowers,  are  sown  in  this  simple 
Republic.  What  shall  the  full  fruitage  be  ?  I  do 
not  denounce  the  newly  rich.  For  most  part 
their  money  came  under  forms  of  law.  The  ir 
responsibilities  of  sudden  wealth  is  in  many 
cases  steadied  by  that  resolute  good  sense  which 
seems  to  be  an  American  heritage,  and  underrun 
by  careless  prodigality  or  by  constant  charity. 
Our  great  wealth  has  brought  us  profit  and 
splendor.  But  the  status  itself  is  a  menace. 
A  home  that  costs  13,000,000  and  a  breakfast  that 
costs  $5000  are  disquieting  facts  to  the  millions 
who  live  in  a  hut  and  dine  on  a  crust.  The  fact 

142 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

that  a  man  ten  years  from  poverty  has  an  income 
of  $20,000,000  —  and  his  two  associates  nearly  as 
much  —  from  the  control  and  arbitrary  pricing 
of  an  article  of  universal  use,  falls  strangely  on 
the  ears  of  those  who  hear  it,  as  they  sit  empty- 
handed,  while  children  cry  for  bread.  The  tend 
ency  deepens  the  dangers  suggested  by  the  status. 
What  is  to  be  the  end  of  this  swift  piling  up 
of  wealth  ?  Twenty  years  ago  but  few  cities 
had  their  millionaires.  To-day  almost  every 
town  has  its  dozen.  Twenty  men  can  be  named 
who  can  each  buy  a  sovereign  State  at  its  tax- 
book  value.  The  youngest  nation,  America,  is 
vastly  the  richest,  and  in  twenty  years,  in  spite 
of  war,  has  nearly  trebled  her  wealth.  Millions 
are  made  on  the  turn  of  a  trade,  and  the  toppling 
mass  grows  and  grows,  while  in  its  shadow 
starvation  and  despair  stalk  among  the  people, 
and  swarm  with  increasing  legions  against  the 
citadels  of  human  life. 

But  the  abuse  of  this  amazing  power  of  consoli 
dated  wealth  is  its  bitterest  result  and  its  press 
ing  danger.  When  the  agent  of  a  dozen  men, 
who  have  captured  and  control  an  article  of  prime 
necessity,  meets  the  representatives  of  a  million 
farmers  from  whom  they  have  forced  $3,000,000 
the  year  before,  with  no  more  moral  right  than 
is  behind  the  highwayman  who  halts  the  traveler 
at  his  pistol's  point,  and  insolently  gives  them 

143 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

the  measure  of  this  year's  rapacity,  and  tells  them 
—  men  who  live  in  the  sweat  of  their  brows,  and 
stand  between  God  and  Nature  —  that  they  must 
submit  to  the  infamy  because  they  are  helpless, 
then  the  first  fruits  of  this  system  are  gathered 
and  have  turned  to  ashes  on  the  lips.  When  a 
dozen  men  get  together  in  the  morning  and  fix 
the  price  of  a  dozen  articles  of  common  use  — 
with  no  standard  but  their  arbitrary  will,  and 
no  limit  but  their  greed  or  daring  —  and  then 
notify  the  sovereign  people  of  this  free  Republic 
how  much,  in  the  mercy  of  their  masters,  they 
shall  pay  for  the  necessaries  of  life  —  then  the 
point  of  intolerable  shame  has  been  reached. 

We  have  read  of  the  robber  barons  of  the  Rhine 
who  from  their  castles  sent  a  shot  across  the  bow 
of  every  passing  craft,  and  descending  as  hawks 
from  the  crags,  tore  and  robbed  and  plundered 
the  voyagers  until  their  greed  was  glutted  or 
the  strength  of  their  victims  spent.  Shall  this 
shame  of  Europe  against  which  the  world  revolted, 
shall  it  be  repeated  in  this  free  country  ?  And 
yet,  when  a  syndicate  or  a  trust  can  arbitrarily 
add  25  per  cent  to  the  cost  of  a  single  article 
of  common  use,  and  safely  gather  forced  tribute 
from  the  people,  until  from  its  surplus  it  could 
buy  every  castle  on  the  Rhine,  or  requite  every 
baron's  debauchery  from  its  kitchen  account  — 
where  is  the  difference  —  save  that  the  castle  is 

144 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

changed  to  a  broker's  office,  and  the  picturesque 
river  to  the  teeming  streets  and  the  broad  fields 
of  this  government  "  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people "  ?  I  do  not  overstate  the 
case.  Economists  have  held  that  wheat,  grown 
everywhere,  could  never  be  cornered  by  capital. 
And  yet  one  man  in  Chicago  tied  the  wheat  crop 
in  his  handkerchief,  and  held  it  until  a  sewing- 
woman  in  my  city,  working  for  ninety  cents  a 
week,  had  to  pay  him  twenty  cents  tax  on  the 
sack  of  flour  she  bore  home  in  her  famished 
hands.  Three  men  held  the  cotton  crop  until  the 
English  spindles  were  stopped  and  the  lights 
went  out  in  3,000,000  English  homes.  Last  sum 
mer  one  man  cornered  pork  until  he  had  levied 
a  tax  of  $3  per^  barrel  on  every  consumer,  and 
pocketed  a  profit  of  millions.  The  Czar  of  Russia 
would  not  have  dared  to  do  these  things.  And 
yet  they  are  no  secrets  in  this  free  government 
of  ours !  They  are  known  of  all  men,  and,  my 
countrymen,  no  argument  can  follow  them,  and 
no  plea  excuse  them,  when  they  fall  on  the  men 
who,  toiling,  yet  suffer,  —  who  hunger  at  their 
work,  —  and  who  cannot  find  food  for  their  wives 
with  which  to  feed  the  infants  that  hang  famish 
ing  at  their  breasts.  Mr.  Jefferson  foresaw  this 
danger,  and  he  sought  to  avert  it.  When  Virginia 
ceded  the  vast  Northwest  to  the  government, — 
before  the  Constitution  was  written,  —  Mr.  Jeffer- 

145 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

son  in  the  second  clause  of  the  articles  of  cession 
prohibited  forever  the  right  of  primogeniture. 
Virginia  then  nobly  said,  and  Georgia  in  the  ces 
sion  of  her  territory  repeated,  "  In  granting  this 
domain  to  the  government  and  dedicating  it  to 
freedom,  we  prescribe  that  there  shall  be  no  classes 
in  the  family,  —  no  child  set  up  at  the  expense  of 
the  others,  no  feudal  estates  established, —  but 
what  a  man  hath  shall  be  divided  equally  among 
his  children." 

We  see  this  feudal  tendency,  swept  away  by 
Mr.  Jefferson,  revived  by  the  conditions  of  our 
time,  aided  by  the  government  with  its  grant  of 
enormous  powers  and  its  amazing  class  legislation. 
It  has  given  the  corporation  more  power  than 
Mr.  Jefferson  stripped  from  the  individual,  and 
has  set  up  a  creature  without  soul  or  conscience 
or  limit  of  human  life  to  establish  an  oligarchy, 
unrelieved  by  human  charity  and  unsteadied  by 
human  responsibility.  The  syndicate,  the  trust, 
the  corporation,  —  these  are  the  eldest  sons  of  the 
Republic  for  whom  the  feudal  right  of  primo 
geniture  is  revived,  and  who  inherit  its  estate  to 
the  impoverishment  of  their  brothers.  Let  it  be 
noted  that  the  alliance  between  those  who  would 
centralize  the  government  and  the  consolidated 
money  power  is  not  only  close,  but  essential.  The 
one  is  the  necessity  of  the  other.  Establish  the 
money  'power  and  there  is  universal  clamor  for 

146 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

strong  government.  The  weak  will  demand  it 
for  protection  against  the  people  restless  under 
oppression  —  the  patriotic  for  protection  against 
the  plutocracy  that  scourges  and  robs  —  the  cor 
rupt  hoping  to  buy  of  one  central  body  distant 
from  local  influences  what  they  could  not  buy 
from  the  legislatures  of  the  States  sitting  at  their 
homes  —  the  oligarchs  will  demand  it  —  as  the 
privileged  few  have  always  demanded  it  —  for 
the  protection  of  their  privileges  and  the  perpetu 
ity  of  their  bounty.  Thus,  hand  in  hand,  will 
walk  —  as  they  have  always  walked  —  the  fed 
eralist  and  the  capitalist,  the  centralist  and  the 
monopolist  —  the  strong  government  protecting 
the  money  power,  and  the  money  power  the 
political  standing  army  of  the  government. 
Hand  in  hand,  compact  and  organized,  one  creat 
ing  the  necessity,  the  other  meeting  it ;  consoli 
dated  wealth  and  centralizing  government ;  strip 
ping  the  many  of  their  rights  and  aggrandizing 
the  few  ;  distrusting  the  people,  but  in  touch 
with  the  plutocrats ;  striking  down  local  self- 
government  and  dwarfing  the  citizens  —  and  at 
last  confronting  the  people  in  the  market,  in  the 
courts,  at  the  ballot  box  —  everywhere  —  with 
the  infamous  challenge,  "What  are  you  going 
to  do  about  it?"  And  so  the  government  pro 
tects  and  the  barons  oppress,  and  the  people  suf 
fer  and  grow  strong.  And  when  the  battle  for 

147 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

liberty  is  joined  —  the  centralist  and  the  pluto 
crat,  intrenched  behind  the  deepening  powers  of 
the  government,  arid  the  countless  ramparts  of 
money  bags,  oppose  to  the  vague  but  earnest  on 
set  of  the  people  the  power  of  the  trained  pha 
lanx  and  the  conscienceless  strength  of  the 
mercenary. 

Against  this  tendency  who  shall  protest? 
Those  who  believe  that  a  central  government 
means  a  strong  government,  and  a  strong  govern 
ment  means  repression  —  those  who  believe  that 
this  vast  Republic,  with  its  diverse  interest  and 
its  local  needs,  can  better  be  governed  by  liberty 
and  enlightenment  diffused  among  the  people 
than  by  powers  and  privileges  congested  at  the 
center  —  those  who  believe  that  the  States  should 
do  nothing  that  the  people  can  do  themselves  and 
the  government  nothing  that  the  States  and  the 
people  can  do  — those  who  believe  that  the  wealth 
of  the  central  government'  is  a  crime  rather  than 
a  virtue,  and  that  every  dollar  not  needed  for  its 
economical  administration  should  be  left  with 
the  people  of  the  State  —  those  who  believe  that 
the  hearthstone  of  the  home  is  the  true  altar  of 
liberty  and  the  enlightened  conscience  of  the  cit 
izen  the  best  guarantee  of  government !  Those 
of  you  who  note  the  farmer  sending  his  sons 
to  the  city  that  they  may  escape  the  unequal  bur 
dens  under  which  he  has  labored,  thus  diminish- 

148 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

ing  the  rural  population  whose  leisure,  integrity, 
and  deliberation  have  corrected  the  passion  and 
impulse  and  corruption  of  the  cities  —  who  note 
that  while  the  rich  are  growing  richer,  and  the 
poor  poorer,  we  are  lessening  that  great  middle 
class  that,  ever  since  it  met  the  returning  crusad 
ers  in  England  with  the  demand  that  the  hut  of 
the  humble  should  be  as  sacred  as  the  castle  of 
the  great,  has  been  the  bulwark  and  glory  of 
every  English-speaking  community  —  who  know 
that  this  Republic,  which  we  shall  live  to  see 
with  150,000,000  people,  stretching  from  ocean  to 
ocean,  and  almost  from  the  arctic  to  the  torrid 
zone,  cannot  be  governed  by  any  laws  that  a 
central  despotism  could  devise  or  controlled  by 
any  armies  it  could  marshal,  —  you  who  know 
these  things  protest  with  all  the  earnestness  of 
your  souls  against  the  policy  and  the  methods 
that  make  them  possible. 

What  is  the  remedy  ?  To  exalt  the  hearth 
stone,  to  strengthen  the  home,  to  build  up  the 
individual,  to  magnify  and  defend  the  principle 
of  local  self-government.  Not  in  deprecation  of 
the  Federal  government,  but  to  its  glory;  not  to 
weaken  the  Republic,  but  to  strengthen  it ;  not 
to  check  the  rich  blood  that  flows  to  its  heart, 
but  to  send  it  full  and  wholesome  from  healthy 
members  rather  than  from  withered  and  diseased 
extremities. 

149 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

The  man  who  kindles  the  fire  on  the  hearth 
stone  of  an  honest  and  righteous  home  burns  the 
best  incense  to  liberty.  He  does  not  love  man 
kind  less  who  loves  his  neighbor  most.  George 
Eliot  has  said  : — 

"  A  human  life  should  be  well  rooted  in  some  spot  of  a 
native  land  where  it  may  get  the  love  of  tender  kinship 
for  the  face  of  the  earth,  for  the  sounds  and  accents  that 
haunt  it,  a  spot  where  the  definiteness  of  early  memories 
may  be  inwrought  with  affection,  and  spread,  not  by 
sentimental  effort  and  reflection,  but  as  a  sweet  habit  of 
the  blest." 

The  germ  of  the  best  patriotism  is  in  the  love 
that  a  man  has  for  the  home  he  inhabits,  for  the 
soil  he  tills,  for  the  trees  that  give  him  shade, 
and  the  hills  that  stand  in  his  pathway.  I  teach 
my  son  to  love  Georgia,  to  love  the  soil  that  he 
stands  on,  —  the  body  of  my  old  mother,  the 
mountains  that  are  her  springing  breasts,  the 
broad  acres  that  hold  her  substance,  the  dimpling 
valleys  in  which  her  beauty  rests,  the  forests  that 
sing  her  songs  of  lullaby  and  of  praise,  and  the 
brooks  that  run  with  her  rippling  laughter.  The 
love  of  home  —  deep  rooted  and  abiding  —  that 
blurs  the  eyes  of  the  dying  soldier  with  the  vision 
of  an  old  homestead  amid  green  fields  and  cluster 
ing  trees,  that  follows  the  busy  man  through  the 
clamoring  world,  persistent  though  put  aside, 
and  at  last  draws  his  tired  feet  from  the  high- 

150 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

way  and  leads  him  through  shady  lanes  and  well- 
remembered  paths  until,  amid  the  scenes  of  his 
boyhood,  he  gathers  up  the  broken  threads  of  his 
life  and  owns  the  soil  his  conqueror,  —  this,  this 
lodged  in  the  heart  of  the  citizen  is  the  saving 
principle  of  our  government.  We  note  the 
barracks  of  our  standing  army  with  its  rolling 
drum  and  its  fluttering  flag  as  points  of  strength 
and  protection.  But  the  citizen  standing  in  the 
doorway  of  his  home  —  contented  on  his  thresh 
old  —  his  family  gathered  about  his  hearthstone 
—  while  the  evening  of  a  well-spent  day  closes 
in  scenes  and  sounds  that  are  dearest,  —  he  shall 
save  the  Republic  when  the  drum  tap  is  futile 
and  the  barracks  are  exhausted. 

This  love  shall  not  be  pent  up  or  provincial. 
The  home  should  be  consecrated  to  humanity, 
and  from  its  roof-tree  should  fly  the  flag  of  the 
Republic.  Every  simple  fruit  gathered  there  — 
every  sacrifice  endured,  and  every  victory  won 
should  bring  better  joy  and  inspiration  in  the 
knowledge  that  it  will  deepen  the  glory  of  our 
Republic  and  widen  the  harvest  of  humanity ! 
Be  not  like  the  peasant  of  France  who  hates  the 
Paris  he  cannot  comprehend,  but  emulate  the 
example  of  your  fathers  in  the  South,  who,  hold 
ing  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  States,  yet  gave  to 
the  Republic  its  chief  glory  of  statesmanship, 
and  under  Jackson  at  New  Orleans,  and  Taylor 

151 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

and  Scott  in  Mexico,  saved  it  twice  from  the 
storm  of  war.  Inherit  without  fear  or  shame 
the  principle  of  local  self-government  by  which 
your  fathers  stood  !  For  though  entangled  with 
an  institution  foreign  to  this  soil,  which,  thank 
God,  not  planted  by  their  hands,  is  now  swept 
away,  and  with  a  theory  bravely  defended,  but 
now  happily  adjusted,  —  that  principle  holds  the 
imperishable  truth  that  shall  yet  save  this  Re 
public.  The  integrity  of  the  State,  its  rights  and 
its  powers,  —  these,  maintained  with  firmness, 
but  in  loyalty,  —  these  shall  yet,  by  lodging  the 
option  of  local  affairs  in  each  locality,  meet  the 
needs  of  this  vast  and  complex  government,  and 
check  the  headlong  rush  to  that  despotism  that 
reason  could  not  defend,  nor  the  armies  of  the 
Czar  maintain,  among  a  free  and  enlightened 
people.  This  issue  is  squarely  made !  It  is 
centralized  government  and  the  money  power  on 
the  one  hand,  against  the  integrity  of  the  States 
and  rights  of  the  people  on  the  other.  At  all 
hazard,  stand  with  the  people  and  the  threatened 
States.  The  choice  may  not  be  easily  made. 
Wise  men  may  hesitate  and  patriotic  men  divide. 
The  culture,  the  strength,  the  mightiness,  of  the 
rich  and  strong  government,  —  these  will  tempt 
and  dazzle.  But  be  not  misled.  Beneath  this 
splendor  is  the  canker  of  a  disturbed  and  op- 
pressed  people.  It  was  from  the  golden  age  of 

152 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

Augustus  that  the  Roman  Empire  staggered  to  its 
fall.  The  integrity  of  the  States  and  the  rights 
of  the  people !  Stand  there  —  there  is  safety  — 
there  is  the  broad  and  enduring  brotherhood  — 
there,  less  of  glory,  but  more  of  honor !  Put 
patriotism  above  partisanship,  and  wherever 
the  principle  that  protects  the  States  against  the 
centralists,  and  the  people  against  the  plutocrats, 
may  lead,  follow  without  fear  or  faltering,  for 
there  the  way  of  duty  and  of  wisdom  lies ! 

Exalt  the  citizen.  As  the  State  is  the  unit  of 
government,  he  is  the  unit  of  the  State.  Teach 
him  that  his  home  is  his  castle,  and  his  sover 
eignty  rests  beneath  his  hat.  Make  himself  self- 
respecting,  self-reliant,  and  responsible.  Let  him 
lean  on  the  State  for  nothing  that  his  own  arm 
can  do,  and  on  the  government  for  nothing  that 
his  State  can  do.  Let  him  cultivate  independ 
ence  to  the  point  of  sacrifice,  and  learn  that 
humble  things  with  unbartered  liberty  are  better 
than  splendors  bought  with  its  price.  Let  him 
neither  surrender  his  individuality  to  govern 
ment,  nor  merge  it  with  the  mob.  Let  him 
stand  upright  and  fearless  —  a  freeman  born  of 
freemen,  sturdy  in  his  own  strength,  dowering 
his  family  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  loving  to  his 
State,  loyal  to  his  Republic,  earnest  in  his  al 
legiance  wherever  it  rests,  but  building  his  altar 
in  the  midst  of  his  household  gods  and  shrining 

153 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

in  his  own  heart  the  uttermost  temple  of   its 
liberty. 

Go  out,  determined  to  magnify  the  commu 
nity  in  which  your  lot  is  cast.  Cultivate  its 
small  economies.  Stand  by  its  young  indus 
tries.  Commercial  dependence  is  a  chain  that 
galls  every  day.  A  factory  built  at  home,  a 
book  published,  a  shoe  or  a  book  made,  —  these 
are  steps  in  that  diffusion  of  thought  and  inter 
est  that  is  needed.  Teach  your  neighbors  to 
withdraw  from  the  vassalage  of  distant  capital 
ists,  and  pay,  under  any  sacrifice,  the  mortgage 
on  the  home  or  the  land.  By  simple  and  prudent 
lives  stay  within  your  own  resources,  and  estab 
lish  the  freedom  of  your  community.  Make 
every  village  and  crossroads  as  far  as  may  be 
sovereign  to  its  own  wants.  Learn  that  thriv 
ing  countrysides  with  room  for  limbs,  conscience, 
and  liberty  are  better  than  great  cities  with 
congested  wealth  and  population.  Preserve  the 
straight  and  simple  homogeneity  of  our  people. 
Welcome  emigrants,  but  see  that  they  come  as 
friends  and  neighbors,  to  mingle  their  blood  with 
ours,  to  build  their  houses  in  our  fields,  and  to 
plant  their  Christian  faith  on  our  hills,  and 
honoring  our  Constitution  and  reverencing  our 
God,  to  confirm  the  simple  beliefs  in  which  we 
have  been  reared,  and  which  we  should  transmit 
unsullied  to  our  children.  Stand  by  these  old- 

154 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

fashioned  beliefs.  Science  hath  revealed  no  bet 
ter  faith  than  that  you  learned  at  your  mother's 
knee  —  nor  has  knowledge  made  a  wiser  and 
a  better  book  than  the  worn  old  Bible  that, 
thumbed  by  hands  long  since  still,  and  blurred 
with  the  tears  of  eyes  long  since  closed,  held  the 
simple  annals  of  your  family  and  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  your  homes. 

Honor  and  emulate  the  virtues  and  the  faith 
of  your  forefathers  —  who,  learned,  were  never 
wise  above  a  knowledge  of  God  and  His  gospel 
—  who,  great,  were  never  exalted  above  an  hum 
ble  trust  in  God  and  His  mercy ! 

Let  me  sum  up  what  I  have  sought  to  say  in 
this  hurried  address.  Your  Republic,  on  the 
glory  of  which  depends  all  that  men  hold  dear, 
is  menaced  with  great  dangers.  Against  these 
dangers  defend  her,  as  you  would  defend  the  most 
precious  concerns  of  your  own  life.  Against  the 
dangers  of  centralizing  all  political  powers,  put  the 
approved  and  imperishable  principle  of  local  self- 
government.  Between  the  rich  and  the  poor  now 
drifting  into  separate  camps,  build  up  the  great 
middle  class  that,  neither  drunk  with  wealth,  nor 
embittered  by  poverty,  shall  lift  up  the  suffering 
and  control  the  strong.  To  the  jangling  of  races 
and  creeds  that  threaten  the  courts  of  men  and 
the  temples  of  God,  oppose  the  home  and  the 
citizen  —  a  homogeneous  and  honest  people  — 

155 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

and  the  simple  faith  that  sustained  your  fathers 
and  mothers  in  their  stainless  lives  and  led  them 
serene  and  smiling  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow. 
Let  it  be  understood  in  my  parting  words  to 
you  that  I  am  no  pessimist  as  to  this  Repub 
lic.  I  always  bet  on  sunshine  in  America.  I 
know  that  my  country  has  reached  the  point 
of  perilous  greatness,  and  that  strange  forces  not 
to  be  measured  or  comprehended  are  hurrying 
her  to  heights  that  dazzle  and  blind  all  mortal 
eyes  —  but  I  know  that  beyond  the  uttermost 
glory  is  enthroned  the  Lord  God  Almighty,  and 
that  when  the  hour  of  her  trial  has  come,  He 
will  lift  up  His  everlasting  gates  and  bend  down 
above  her  in  mercy  and  in  love.  For  with  her 
He  has  surely  lodged  the  ark  of  His  covenant 
with  the  sons  of  men.  Emerson  wisely  said, 
"  Our  whole  history  looks  like  the  last  effort  by 
Divine  Providence  in  behalf  of  the  human  race." 
And  the  Republic  will  endure.  Centralism  will 
be  checked,  and  liberty  saved  —  plutocracy  over 
thrown  and  equality  restored.  The  struggle  for 
human  rights  never  goes  backward  among  Eng 
lish-speaking  peoples.  Our  brothers  across  the 
sea  have  fought  from  despotism  to  liberty,  and  in 
the  wisdom  of  local  self-government  have  planted 
colonies  around  the  world.  This  very  day  Mr. 
Gladstone,  the  wisest  man  that  has  lived  since 
your  Jefferson  died,  —  with  the  light  of  another 

156 


AGAINST  CENTRALIZATION 

world  beating  in  his  face  until  he  seems  to  have 
caught  the  wisdom  of  the  Infinite  and  towers 
half  human  and  half  divine  from  his  eminence, 
—  this  man,  turning  away  from  the  traditions  of 
his  life,  begs  his  countrymen  to  strip  the  crown 
of  its  last  usurped  authority,  and  lodge  it  with 
the  people,  where  it  belongs.  The  trend  of  the 
times  is  with  us.  The  world  moves  steadily  from 
gloom  to  brightness.  And  bending  down  hum 
bly  as  Elisha  did,  and  praying  that  my  eyes  shall 
be  made  to  see,  I  catch  the  vision  of  this  Repub 
lic,  its  mighty  forces  in  balance,  and  its  unspeak 
able  glory  falling  on  all  its  children,  chief  among 
the  federation  of  English-speaking  people,  plenty 
streaming  from  its  borders  and  light  from  its 
mountain  tops,  working  out  its  mission  under 
God's  approving  eye,  until  the  dark  continents 
are  opened  and  the  highways  of  earth  estab 
lished  and  the  shadows  lifted,  and  the  jargon 
of  the  nations  stilled  and  the  perplexities  of 
Babel  straightened  —  and  under  one  language, 
one  liberty,  and  one  God,  all  the  nations  of  the 
world  hearkening  to  the  American  drum  beat 
and  girding  up  their  loins,  shall  march  amid  the 
breaking  of  the  millennial  dawn  into  the  paths 
of  righteousness  and  of  peace ! 


157 


THE   FARMER   AND   THE   CITIES 

A  speech  delivered  at  Elberton,  Georgia,  in  June,  1889 

Mr.  President,  ladies  and  gentlemen :  For 
the  first  time  in  my  life  I  address  an  audience 
in  the  open  air.  And  as  I  stand  here  in  this 
beautiful  morning,  so  shot  through  and  through 
with  sunshine  that  the  very  air  is  as  molten 
gold  to  the  touch  ;  under  these  trees  in  whose 
trunks  the  rains  and  suns  of  years  are  compacted, 
and  on  whose  leaves  God  has  laid  His  whisper 
ing  music ;  here  in  His  majestic  temple,  with 
the  brightness  of  His  smile  breaking  all  about 
us ;  standing  above  the  soil  instinct  with  the 
touch  of  His  life-giving  hand,  and  full  of  His 
promise  and  His  miracle ;  and  looking  up  to  the 
clouds  through  which  His  thunders  roll,  and 
His  lightnings  cut  their  way,  and  beyond  that  to 
the  dazzling  glory  of  the  sun,  and  yet  beyond  to 
the  unspeakable  splendor  of  the  universe,  flash 
ing  and  paling  until  the  separate  stars  are  but  as 
mist  in  the  skies,  even  to  the  uplifted  jasper  gates 
through  which  His  everlasting  glory  streams  — 
my  mind  falls  back  abashed,  and  I  realize  how 
paltry  is  human  speech,  and  how  idle  are  the 
thoughts  of  men ! 

158 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

Another  thought  oppresses  me.  In  front  of 
me  sit  several  thousand  people.  Over  there,  in 
smelling  distance,  where  we  can  almost  hear  the 
lisping  of  the  mop  as  it  caresses  the  barbecued 
lamb  or  the  pottering  of  the  skewered  pig  as  he 
leisurely  turns  from  fat  to  crackling,  is  being 
prepared  a  dinner  that  I  verily  believe  covers 
more  provisions  than  were  issued  to  all  the 
soldiers  of  Lee's  army,  God  bless  them,  in  their 
last  campaign.  And  I  shudder  when  I  think 
that  I,  a  single,  unarmed,  defenseless  man,  is  all 
that  stands  between  this  crowd  and  that  dinner. 
Here  then,  awed  by  God's  majesty,  and  menaced 
by  man's  appetite,  I  am  tempted  to  leave  this 
platform  and  yield  to  the  boyish  impulses  that 
always  stir  in  my  heart  amid  such  scenes,  and 
revert  to  the  days  of  boyhood  when  about  the 
hills  of  Athens  I  chased  the  pacing  coon,  or 
twisted  the  unwary  rabbit,  or  shot  my  ramrod 
at  all  manner  of  birds  and  beasts  —  and  at  night 
went  home  to  look  up  into  a  pair  of  gentle  eyes 
and  take  on  my  tired  face  the  benediction  of  a 
mother's  kiss  and  feel  on  my  weary  head  a  pair 
of  loving  hands,  now  wrinkled  and  trembling,  but, 
blessed  be  God,  fairer  to  me  yet  than  the  hands 
of  mortal  women,  and  stronger  yet  to  lead  me 
than  the  hands  of  mortal  man,  as  they  laid  a 
mother's  blessing  there,  while  bending  at  her 
knees  I  made  my  best  confession  of  faith  and 

159 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

worshiped  at  the  truest  altar  I  have  yet  found 
in  this  world.  I  had  rather  go  out  and  lay 
down  on  the  ground  and  hug  the  grass  to  my 
breast  and  mind  me  of  the  time  when  I  builded 
boyish  ambitions  on  the  wooded  hills  of  Athens, 
than  do  aught  else  to-day.  But  I  recall  the 
story  of  Uncle  Remus,  who,  when  his  favorite 
hero,  Brer  Rabbit,  was  sorely  pressed  by  that 
arch  villain,  Brer  Fox,  said  :  — 

"  An'  Brer  Rabbit  den  he  climb'd  a  tree." 
"  But,"  said  the  little  boy,  "  Uncle  Remus,  a 
rabbit  can't  climb  a  tree." 

"  Doan  you  min'  dat,  honey.  Brer  Fox  pressed 
dis  rabbit  so  hard  he  des  bleeged  to  dim*  a 
tree." 

I  am  pressed  so  hard  to-day  by  your  com 
mands  that  I  am  just  "bleeged"  to  make  a 
speech,  and  so  I  proceed.  I  heartily  invoke 
God's  guidance  in  what  I  say,  that  I  shall  utter 
no  word  to  soil  this  temple  of  His,  and  no  senti 
ment  not  approved  in  His  wisdom ;  and  as  for 
you,  when  the  time  comes  —  as  it  will  come  — 
when  you  prefer  barbecued  shote  to  raw  orator, 
and  feel  that  you  can  be  happier  at  that  table 
than  in  this  forum,  just  say  the  word  and  I  will 
be  with  you  heart  and  soul ! 

I  am  tempted  to  yield  to  the  gayety  of  this 
scene,  to  the  flaunting  banners  of  the  trees,  the 
downpouring  sunshine,  the  garnered  plenty  over 

160 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

there,  this  smiling  and  hospitable  crowd,  and 
throwing  serious  affairs  aside,  to  speak  to  you  to 
day  as  the  bird  sings  —  without  care  and  without 
thought.  I  should  be  false  to  myself  and  to  you, 
if  I  did,  for  there  are  serious  problems  that  beset 
our  State  and  our  country  that  no  man,  facing, 
as  I  do  this  morning,  a  great  and  intelligent 
audience,  can  in  honor  or  in  courage  disregard. 
I  shall  attempt  to  make  no  brilliant  speech,  but 
to  counsel  with  you  in  plain  and  simple  words, 
beseeching  your  attention  and  your  sympathy  as 
to  the  dangers  of  the  present  hour,  and  our 
duties  arid  our  responsibilities. 

At  Saturday  noon  in  any  part  of  this  country 
you  may  note  the  farmer  going  from  his  field,- 
eating  his  dinner  thoughtfully,  and  then  saddling 
his  plow  horse,  or  starting  afoot  and  making 
his  way  to  a  neighboring  church  or  schoolhouse. 
There  he  finds  from  every  farm,  through  every 
footpath,  his  neighbors  gathering  to  meet  him. 
What  is  the  object  of  this  meeting?  It  is  not 
social,  it  is  not  frolic,  it  is  not  a  picnic  —  the  ear 
nest,  thoughtful  faces,  the  serious  debate  and 
council,  the  closed  doors  and  the  secret  session, 
forbid  this  assumption.  It  is  a  meeting  of  men 
who  feel  that  in  spite  of  themselves  their  affairs 
are  going  wrong ;  of  free  and  equal  citizens  who 
feel  that  they  carry  unequal  burdens ;  of  toilers 
who  feel  that  they  reap  not  the  just  fruits  of 

M  161 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

their  toil ;  of  men  who  feel  that  their  labor  en 
riches  others  while  it  leaves  them  poor,  and  that 
the  sweat  of  their  bodies,  shed  freely  under  God's 
command,  goes  to  clothe  the  idle  and  the  avari 
cious  in  purple  and  fine  linen.  This  is  a  meeting 
of  protest,  of  resistance.  Here  the  farmer  meets 
to  demand,  and  organize  that  he  may  enforce  his 
demand,  that  he  shall  stand  equal  with  every 
other  class  of  citizens ;  that  laws  discriminating 
against  him  shall  be  repealed ;  that  the  methods 
oppressing  him  shall  be  modified  or  abolished ; 
and  that  he  shall  be  guaranteed  that  neither  gov 
ernment  nor  society  shall  abridge,  by  statute  or 
custom,  his  just  and  honest  proportion  of  the 
wealth  he  created,  but  that  he  shall  be  permitted 
to  garner  in  his  barns,  and  enjoy  by  his  hearth 
stone,  the  full  and  fair  fruits  of  his  labor.  If 
this  movement  were  confined  to  Elbert,  if  this 
disturbing  feeling  of  discontent  were  shut  in  the 
limits  of  your  county  lines,  it  would  still  demand 
the  attention  of  the  thoughtful  and  patriotic. 
But,  as  it  is  in  Elbert,  so  it  is  in  every  county  in 
Georgia  —  as  in  Georgia,  so  it  is  in  every  State  in 
the  South  —  as  in  the  South,  so  in  every  agricul 
tural  State  in  the  Union.  In  every  rural  neigh 
borhood,  from  Ohio  to  Texas,  from  Michigan  to 
Georgia,  the  farmers,  riding  thoughtful  through 
field  and  meadow,  seek  ten  thousand  schoolhouses 
or  churches  —  the  muster  grounds  of  this  new 

162 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

army  —  and  there,  recounting  their  wrongs  and 
renewing  their  pledges,  send  up  from  neighbor 
hoods  to  county,  from  county  to  State,  and  State 
to  Republic,  the  measure  of  their  strength  and 
the  unyielding  quality  of  their  determination. 
The  agricultural  army  of  the  Republic  is  in  mo 
tion.  The  rallying  drumbeat  has  rolled  over  field 
and  meadow,  and  from  where  the  wheat  locks 
the  sunshine  in  its  bearded  sheaf,  and  the  clover 
carpets  the  earth,  and  the  cotton  whitens  beneath 
the  stars,  and  the  tobacco  catches  the  quick 
aroma  of  the  rains,  —  everywhere  that  patient 
man  stands  above  the  soil,  or  bends  about  the 
furrow,  the  farmers  are  ready  in  squads  and  com 
panies  and  battalions  and  legions  to  be  led  against 
what  they  hold  to  be  an  oppression  that  honest 
men  would  not  deserve,  and  that  brave  men 
would  not  endure.  Let  us  not  fail  to  comprehend 
the  magnitude  and  the  meaning  of  this  move 
ment.  It  is  no  trifling  cause  that  brings  the 
farmers  into  such  determined  and  widespread  or 
ganization  as  this.  It  is  not  the  skillful  arts  of 
the  demagogue  that  has  brought  nearly  two  mil 
lion  farmers  into  this  perfect  and  pledge-bound  so 
ciety,  but  it  is  a  deep  and  abiding  conviction  that, 
in  political  and  commercial  economy  of  the  day,  he 
is  put  at  a  disadvantage  that  keeps  him  poor  while 
other  classes  grow  rich,  and  that  bars  his  way 
to  prosperity  and  independence.  General  Toombs 

163 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

once  said  that  the  farmer,  considered  the  most 
conservative  type  of  citizenship,  is  really  the  most 
revolutionary  ;  that  the  farmers  of  France,  flock 
ing  to  the  towns  and  cities  from  the  unequal  bur 
dens  of  their  farms,  brought  about  the  French 
Revolution,  and  that  about  once  in  every  century 
the  French  peasant  raided  the  towns.  Three 
times  the  farmers  of  England  have  captured  and 
held  London.  It  was  the  farmers  of  Mecklen 
burg  that  made  the  first  American  declaration, 
and  Putman  left  his  plow  standing  in  the  furrow 
as  he  hurried  to  lead  the  embattled  farmers  who 
fought  at  Concord  and  Lexington.  I  realize  it  is 
impossible  that  revolution  should  be  the  outcome 
of  our  industrial  troubles.  The  farmer  of  to-day 
does  not  consider  that  remedy  for  his  wrongs. 
I  quote  history  to  show  that  the  farmer,  segre 
gated  and  deliberate,  does  not  move  on  slight 
provocation,  but  organizes  only  under  deep  con 
viction,  and  that  when  once  organized  and 
convinced,  he  is  terribly  in  earnest,  and  is  not 
going  to  rest  until  his  wrongs  are  righted. 

Now,  here  we  are  confronted  with  the  most 
thorough  and  widespread  agricultural  movement 
of  this  or  any  other  day.  It  is  the  duty  alike  of 
farmers  and  those  who  stand  in  other  ranks,  to 
get  together  and  consult  as  to  what  is  the  real 
status  and  what  is  the  patriotic  duty.  Not  in 
sullenness,  but  in  frankness.  Not  as  opponents, 

164 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

but  as  friends  —  not  as  enemies,  but  as  brothers 
begotten  of  a  common  mother,  banded  in  com 
mon  allegiance,  and  marching  to  a  common 
destiny.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  this  organi 
zation  will  pass  away,  for  if  the  discontent  on 
which  it  is  based  survives  it,  it  had  better  have 
lived  and  forced  its  wrongs  to  final  issue.  There 
is  no  room  for  divided  hearts  in  this  State,  or  in 
this  Republic.  If  we  shall  restore  Georgia  to 
her  former  greatness  and  prosperity  —  if  we 
shall  solve  the  problems  that  beset  the  South  in 
honor  and  safety  —  if  we  shall  save  this  Republic 
from  the  dangers  that  threaten  it  —  it  will  re 
quire  the  earnest  and  united  effort  of  every  pa 
triotic  citizen,  be  he  farmer,  or  merchant,  or 
lawyer,  or  manufacturer.  Let  us  consider,  then, 
the  situation,  and  decide  what  is  the  duty  that 
lies  before  us. 

In  discussing  this  matter  briefly,  I  beg  the 
ladies  to  give  me  their  attention.  I  have  always 
believed  that  there  are  few  affairs  of  life  in 
which  woman  should  not  have  a  part.  Not 
obtrusive  part  —  for  that  is  unwomanly.  The 
work  falling  best  to  the  hand  of  woman  is  such 
work  as  is  done  by  the  dews  of  night,  that  ride 
not  on  the  boasting  wind,  and  shine  not  in  the 
garish  sun,  but  that  come  when  the  wind  is 
stilled  and  the  sun  is  gone,  and  night  has 
wrapped  the  earth  in  its  sacred "hiish,  and  fall 

165 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

from  the  distillery  of  the  stars  upon  the  parched 
and  waiting  flowers,  as  a  benediction  from  God. 
Let  no  one  doubt  the  power  of  this  work, 
though  it  lack  pomp  and  circumstance.  Is  Bis 
marck  the  mightiest  power  of  this  earth,  who  is 
attended  by  martial  strains  when  he  walks 
abroad,  and  in  whose  path  thrones  are  scattered 
as  trophies  ?  Why,  the  little  housewife  alone  in 
her  chimney  corner,  musing  in  her  happiness, 
with  no  trophy  in  her  path  save  her  husband's 
loving  heart,  and  no  music  on  her  ear  save  the 
chirping  of  the  cricket  beneath  her  hearthstone, 
is  his  superior.  For,  while  he  holds  the  purse- 
strings  of  Germany,  she  holds  the  heartstrings 
of  men.  She  who  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the 
world.  Give  me,  then,  your  attention,  note  the 
conflict  that  is  gathering  about  us,  and  take 
your  place  with  seeming  modesty  in  the  ranks 
of  those  who  fight  for  right.  It  is  not  an  ab 
stract  political  theory  that  is  involved  in  the 
contest  of  which  I  speak.  It  is  the  integrity 
and  independence  of  your  home  that  is  at  stake. 
The  battle  is  not  pitched  in  a  distant  State. 
Your  home  is  the  battlefield,  and  by  your 
hearthstones  you  shall  fight  for  your  household 
gods.  With  your  husband's  arms  so  wound 
around  you  that  you  can  feel  his  anxious  heart 
beating  against  your  cheek,  with  your  sons, 
sturdy  and  loving,  holding  your  old  hands  in 

166 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

theirs,  here  on  the  threshold  of  your  house,  under 
the  trees  that  sheltered  your  babyhood,  with  the 
graves  of  your  dead  in  that  plain  inclosure  yon 
der  —  here  men  and  women,  heart  to  heart,  with 
not  a  man  dismayed,  not  a  woman  idle  —  while 
the  multiplied  wolves  of  debt  and  mortgage, 
and  trust  and  monopoly,  swarm  from  every 
thicket ;  here  we  must  fight  the  ultimate  battle 
for  the  independence  of  our  people  and  the  hap 
piness  of  our  homes. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  facts :  First,  the  nota 
ble  movement  of  the  population  in  America  is 
from  the  country  to  the  cities.  In  1840  —  a 
generation  ago,  only  one  twelfth  of  the  American 
people  lived  in  cities  of  more  than  8000  people. 
In  1850,  one  eighth  ;  in  1860,  one  sixth ;  in  1870, 
one  fifth;  in  1880,  one  fourth.  In  the  past  half- 
century  the  population  of  cities  has  increased 
more  than  four  times  as  rapidly  as  that  of  the 
country.  Mind  you,  when  I  say  that  the  city 
population  has  increased  in  one  generation  from 
8  per  cent  to  25  per  cent  in  population,  I  mean 
the  population  of  cities  of  more  than  8000  people. 
There  is  not  such  a  city  in  this  congressional 
district.  It  is  the  village  and  town  population, 
as  well  as  that  of  the  farms,  that  goes  to  swell 
so  enormously  the  population  of  the  great  cities. 
Thus  we  see  diminishing  with  amazing  rapidity 
that  rural  population  that  is  the  strength  and 

167 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

the  safety  of  the  people  —  slow  to  anger  and 
thus  a  safeguard,  but  terrible  in  its  wrath,  and 
thus  a  tremendous  corrective  power.  No  greater 
calamity  could  befall  any  country  than  the  sac 
rifice  of  its  town  and  village  and  country  life. 
I  rejoice  in  Atlanta's  growth,  and  yet  I  wonder 
whether  it  is  worth  what  it  cost  when  I  know 
that  her  population  has  been  drawn  largely  from 
rural  Georgia,  and  that  back  of  her  grandeur  are 
thousands  of  deserted  farms  and  dismantled 
homes.  As  much  as  I  love  her  —  and  she  is  all 
to  me  that  home  can  be  to  any  man  —  if  I  had 
the  disposal  of  100,000  immigrants  at  her  gates 
to-morrow,  5000  should  enter  there,  75,000  should 
be  located  in  the  shops  and  factories  in  Georgia 
towns  and  villages,  and  20,000  sent  to  her  farms. 
It  saddens  me  to  see  a  bright  young  fellow  come 
to  my  office  from  village  or  country,  and  I  shud 
der  when  I  think  for  what  a  feverish  and  specu 
lative  and  uncertain  life  he  has  bartered  his  rural 
birthright,  and  surrendered  the  deliberation  and 
tranquillity  of  his  life  on  the  farm.  It  is  just 
that  deliberate  life  that  this  country  needs,  for 
the  fever  of  the  cities  is  already  affecting  its  sys 
tem.  Character,  like  corn,  is  dug  from  the  soil. 
A  contented  rural  population  is  not  only  the 
measure  of  our  strength,  and  an  assurance  of  its 
peace  when  there  should  be  peace,  and  a  resource 
of  courage  when  peace  would  be  cowardice  — 

168 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

but  it  is  the  nursery  of  the  great  leaders  who 
have  made  this  country  what  it  is.  Washington 
was  born  and  lived  in  the  country.  Jefferson  was 
a  farmer.  Henry  Clay  rode  his  horse  to  the  mill 
in  the  slashes.  Webster  dreamed  amid  the  soli 
tude  of  Marshfield.  Lincoln  was  a  rail  splitter. 
Our  own  Hill  walked  between  the  handles  of 
the  plow.  Brown  peddled  barefoot  the  product 
of  his  patch.  Stephens  found  immortality  under 
the  trees  of  his  country  home.  Toombs  and 
Cobb  and  Calhoun  were  country  gentlemen,  and 
afar  from  the  cities'  maddening  strife  established 
that  greatness  that  is  the  heritage  of  their  people. 
The  cities  produce  very  few  leaders.  Almost 
every  man  in  our  history  formed  his  character  in 
the  leisure  and  deliberation  of  village  or  coun 
try  life,  and  drew  his  strength  from  the  drugs  of 
the  earth  even  as  a  child  draws  his  from  his 
mother's  breast.  In  the  diminution  of  this 
rural  population,  virtuous  and  competent,  patri 
otic  and  honest,  living  beneath  its  own  roof-tree, 
building  its  altars  by  its  own  hearthstone  and 
shrining  in  its  own  heart  its  liberty  and  its 
conscience,  there  is  abiding  cause  for  regret. 
In  the  corresponding  growth  of  our  cities  — 
already  center  spots  of  danger,  with  their  idle 
classes,  their  sharp  rich  and  poor,  their  corrupt 
politics,  their  consorted  thieves,  and  their  clubs 
and  societies  of  anarchy  and  socialism  —  I  see  a 

169 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

pressing  and  impending  danger.  Let  it  be  noted 
that  the  professions  are  crowded,  that  middlemen 
are  multiplied  beyond  reason,  that  the  factories 
can  in  six  months  supply  the  demand  of  twelve, 
that  machinery  is  constantly  taking  the  place  of 
men,  that  labor  in  every  department  bids  against 
itself  until  it  is  mercilessly  in  the  hands  of  the 
employer,  that  the  newcomers  are  largely  re 
cruits  of  the  idle  and  dangerous  classes,  and  we 
can  appreciate  something  of  the  danger  that 
comes  with  this  increasing  movement  to  strip 
the  villages  and  the  farms  and  send  an  increasing 
volume  into  the  already  overcrowded  cities. 
This  is  but  one  phase  of  that  tendency  to  central 
ization  and  congestion  which  is  threatening  the 
liberties  of  this  people  and  the  life  of  this 
Republic. 

Now,  let  us  go  one  step  further.  What  is  the 
most  notable  financial  movement  in  America  ? 
It  is  the  mortgaging  of  the  farm  lands  of  the 
country  —  the  bringing  of  the  farmer  into  bond 
age  to  the  money  lender.  In  Illinois  the  farms 
are  mortgaged  for  $200,000,000,  in  Iowa  for 
$140,000,000,  in  Kansas  for  $160,000,000,  and  so 
on  through  the  Northwest.  In  Georgia  about 
$20,000,000  of  foreign  capital  holds  in  mort 
gage  perhaps  one-fourth  of  Georgia's  farms,  and 
the  work  is  but  started.  Every  town  has  its 
loan  agent  —  a  dozen  companies  are  quartered  in 

170 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

Atlanta,  and  the  work  goes  briskly  on.  A 
mortgage  is  the  bulldog  of  obligations  —  a 
very  mud  turtle  for  holding  on.  It  is  the  heavi 
est  thing  of  its  weight  in  the  world.  I  had 
one  once  and  sometimes  I  used  to  feel,  as  it  rested 
on  my  roof,  deadening  the  rain  that  fell  there, 
and  absorbing  the  sunshine,  that  it  would  crush 
through  the  shingles  and  the  rafters  and  over 
whelm  me  with  its  dull  and  persistent  weight, 
and  when  at  last  I  paid  it  off,  I  went  out  to 
look  at  the  shingles  to  see  if  it  had  not  flopped 
back  there  of  its  own  accord.  Think  of  it  — 
Iowa  strips  from  her  farmers  114,000,000  of  in 
terest  every  year,  and  sends  it  to  New  York  and 
Boston  to  be  reloaned  on  farms  in  other  states, 
and  to  support  and  establish  the  dominion  of 
the  money  lenders  over  the  people.  Georgia 
gathers  from  the  languishing  field  $2,000,000 
of  interest  every  year,  and  sends  it  away  for 
ever.  Could  her  farmers  but  keep  it  at  home, 
one  year's  interest  would  build  factories  to  supply 
at  cost  every  yard  of  bagging  and  every  pound 
of  guano  the  farmers  need,  establish  her  exchanges 
and  their  warehouses,  and  have  left  more  than 
a  million  dollars  for  the  improvement  of  their 
farmers  and  their  homes.  And  year  after  year 
this  drain  not  only  continues,  but  deepens. 
What  will  be  the  end  ?  Ireland  has  found  it. 
Her  peasants  in  their  mud  cabins,  sending  every 

171 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

tithe  of  their  earnings  to  deepen  the  purple 
luxury  of  London,  where  their  landlords  live, 
realize  how  poor  is  that  country  whose  farms 
are  owned  in  mortgage  or  fee  simple  by  those 
who  live  beyond  its  borders.  If  every  Irish 
landlord  lived  on  his  estate,  bought  of  his  tenants 
the  product  of  their  farms,  and  invested  his 
rents  in  Irish  industries,  this  Irish  question  that 
is  the  shame  of  the  world  would  be  settled  with 
out  legislation  or  strife.  Georgia  can  never  go 
to  Ireland's  degradation,  but  every  Georgia  farm 
put  under  mortgage  to  a  foreign  capitalist  is  a 
step  in  that  direction,'  and  every  dollar  sent  out 
as  interest  leaves  the  State  that  much  poorer. 
I  do  not  blame  the  farmers.  It  is  a  miracle  that 
out  of  their  poverty  they  have  done  so  well. 
I  simply  deplore  the  result,  and  ask  you  to  note 
in  the  millions  of  acres  that  annually  pass  under 
mortgage  to  the  money  lenders  of  the  East,  and 
in  the  thousands  of  independent  country  homes 
annually  surrendered  as  hostages  to  their  hands, 
another  evidence  of  that  centralization  that  is 
drinking  up  the  lifeblood  of  this  broad  Republic. 
Let  us  go  one  step  further.  All  protest  as  to 
our  industrial  condition  is  met  with  the  state 
ment  that  America  is  startling  the  world  with 
its  growth  and  progress.  Is  this  growth  sym 
metrical  —  is  this  progress  shared  by  every  class  ? 
Let  the  tax  books  of  Georgia  answer.  This  year, 

172 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

for  the  first  time  since  1860,  our  taxable  wealth 
is  equal  to  that  with  which,  excluding  our  slaves, 
we  entered  the  Civil  War  — 1368,000,000.  There 
is  cause  for  rejoicing  in  this  wonderful  growth 
from  the  ashes  and  desolation  of  twenty  years 
ago,  but  the  tax  books  show  that  while  the 
towns  and  cities  are  160,000,000  richer  than  they 
were  in  1860,  the  farmers  are  150,000,000  poorer. 
Who  produced  this  wealth?  In  1865,  when 
our  towns  and  cities  were  paralyzed,  when  not  a 
mine  nor  quarry  was  open,  hardly  a  mill  or  a 
factory  running ;  when  we  had  neither  money  nor 
credit,  it  was  the  farmers'  cotton  that  started  the 
mills  of  industry  and  of  trade.  Since  that  desolate 
year,  when,  urging  his  horse  down  the  furrow,  plow 
ing  through  fields  on  which  he  had  staggered  amid 
the  storm  of  battle,  he  began  the  rehabilitation 
of  Georgia  with  no  friend  near  him  save  nature 
that  smiled  at  his  kindly  touch,  and  God  sent 
him  the  message  of  cheer  through  the  rustling 
leaves,  he  has  dug  from  the  soil  of  Georgia  more 
than  $1,000,000,000  worth  of  product.  From 
this  mighty  resource  great  cities  have  been 
builded  and  countless  fortunes  amassed,  but 
amid  all  the  splendor  he  has  remained  the  hewer 
of  wood  and  the  drawer  of  water.  He  had 
made  the  cities  160,000,000  richer  than  they  were 
when  the  war  began,  and  he  finds  himself,  in 
the  sweat  of  whose  brow  this  miracle  was 

173 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

wrought,  $50,000,000  poorer  than  he  then  was. 
Perhaps  not  a  farmer  in  this  audience  knew  this 
fact  —  but  I  doubt  if  there  is  one  in  the  audience 
who  has  not  felt  in  his  daily  life  the  disadvantage 
that  in  twenty  short  years  has  brought  about 
this  stupendous  difference.  Let  the  figures  speak 
for  themselves.  The  farmer  —  the  first  figure  to 
stumble  amid  the  desolate  dawn  of  our  new  life 
and  to  salute  the  coming  day — hurrying  to 
market  with  the  harvest  of  his  hasty  planting 
that  Georgia  might  once  more  enter  the  lists  of 
the  living  States  and  but  the  wherewithal  to 
still  her  wants  and  clothe  her  nakedness  — 
always  apparently  the  master  of  the  situation, 
has  he  not  been  really  its  slave,  when  he  finds 
himself  at  the  end  of  twenty  hard  and  faithful 
years  $110,000,000  out  of  balance  ? 

Now,  let  us  review  the  situation  for  a  moment. 
I  have  shown  you,  first,  that  the  notable  drift  of 
population  is  to  the  loss  of  village  and  country, 
and  the  undue  and  dangerous  growth  of  the  city  ; 
second,  that  the  notable  movement  of  finance  is 
that  which  is  bringing  villages  and  country  under 
mortgage  to  the  city ;  and  third,  that  they  who 
handle  the  products  for  sale  profit  more  thereby 
than  those  who  create  them  —  the  difference  in 
one  State  in  twenty  years  reaching  the  enormous 
sum  of  $110,000,000.  Are  these  healthy  tenden 
cies  ?  Do  they  not  demand  the  earnest  and  though t- 

174 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

fill  consideration  of  every  patriotic  citizen  ?  The 
problem  of  the  day  is  to  check  these  three  cur 
rents  that  are  already  pouring  against  the  bul 
warks  of  our  peace  and  prosperity.  To  anchor 
the  farmer  to  his  land  and  the  villager  to  his 
home  ;  to  enable  him  to  till  the  land  under  equal 
conditions  and  to  hold  that  home  in  independence  ; 
to  save  with  his  hands  the  just  proportion  of  his 
labor,  that  he  may  sow  in  content  and  reap  in 
justice,  —  this  is  what  we  need.  The  danger  of 
the  day  is  centralization,  its  salvation  diffusion. 
Cut  that  word  deep  in  your  heart.  This  Repub 
lic  differs  from  Russia  only  because  the  powers 
centralized  there  in  one  man  are  here  diffused 
among  the  people.  Western  Ohio  is  happy  and 
tranquil,  while  Chicago  is  feverish  and  dangerous, 
because  the  people  diffused  in  the  towns  and  the 
villages  of  the  one  are  centralized  and  packed  in 
the  tenements  of  the  other ;  but  of  all  centraliza 
tion  that  menaces  our  peace  and  threatens  our 
liberties,  is  the  consolidation  of  capital  —  and  of 
all  the  diffusion  that  is  needed  in  this  Republic, 
congesting  at  so  many  points,  is  the  leveling  of 
our  colossal  fortunes  and  the  diffusion  of  our 
gathered  wealth  amid  the  great  middle  classes 
of  this  people.  As  this  question  underruns  the 
three  tendencies  we  have  been  discussing,  let  us 
consider  it  a  moment. 

Few  men  comprehend  the  growth  of  private 
175 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

fortunes  in  this  country,  and  the  encroachments 
they  have  made  on  the  rest  of  the  people.  Take 
one  instance :  A  man  in  Chicago  that  had  a  pri 
vate  fortune  secured  control  of  all  the  wheat 
in  the  country,  and  advanced  the  price  until 
flour  went  up  $3  a  barrel.  When  he  collected 
$4,000,000  of  this  forced  tribute  from  the 
people,  he  opened  his  corner  and  released  the 
wheat,  and  the  world,  forgetting  the  famishing 
children  from  whose  hungry  lips  he  had  stolen 
the  crust,  praised  him  as  the  king  of  finance  and 
trade.  Let  us  analyze  this  deal.  The  farmer 
who  raised  the  wheat  got  not  one  cent  of  the 
added  profit;  the  mills  that  ground  it  not  one 
cent.  Every  dollar  went  to  swell  the  toppling 
fortunes  of  him  who  never  sowed  it  to  the  ground, 
nor  fed  it  to  the  thundering  wheels,  but  who 
knew  it  only  as  the  chance  instrument  of  his  in 
famous  scheme.  Why,  our  fathers  declared  war 
against  England,  their  mother  country,  from 
whose  womb  they  came,  because  she  levied  two 
cents  a  pound  on  our  tea,  and  yet,  without  a 
murmur,  we  submit  to  ten  times  this  tax  placed  on 
the  bread  of  our  mouths,  and  levied  by  a  private 
citizen  for  no  reason  save  his  greed,  and  no  right 
save  his  might.  Were  a  man  to  enter  an  humble 
home  in  England,  bind  the  father  helpless,  stamp 
out  the  fire  on  the  hearthstone,  empty  the  scanty 
larder,  and  leave  the  family  for  three  weeks  cold 

176 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

and  hungry  and  helpless,  he  would  be  dealt  with 
by  the  law ;  and  yet  four  men  in  New  York  cor 
nered  the  world's  cotton  crop  and  held  it  until 
the  English  spindles  were  stopped  and  14,000,000 
operatives  sent  idle  and  empty-handed  to  their 
homes,  to  divide  their  last  crust  with  their  chil 
dren,  and  then  sit  down  and  suffer  until  the  greed 
of  the  speculators  was  filled.  The  sugar  refiner 
ies  combined  their  plants  at  a  cost  of  $14,000,000, 
and  so  raised  the  price  of  sugar  that  they  made 
the  first  year  $9,500,000  profit,  and  since  then 
have  advanced  it  rapidly  until  we  sweeten  our 
coffee  absolutely  in  their  caprice.  When  the 
bagging  mills  were  threatened  with  a  reduced 
tariff,  they  made  a  trust  and  openly  boasted  that 
they  intended  to  make  one  season's  profits  pay 
the  entire  cost  of  their  mills  —  and  these  precious 
villains,  whom  thus  far  the  lightnings  have  failed 
to  blast,  having  carried  out  their  infamous  boast, 
organized  for  a  deeper  steal  this  season.  And  so 
it  goes.  There  is  not  a  thing  we  eat  or  drink, 
that  may  not  be  thus  seized  and  controlled  and 
made  an  instrument  for  the  shameless  plundering 
of  the  people.  It  is  a  shame  —  this  people  patient 
and  cheerful  under  the  rise  or  fall  of  prices  that 
come  with  the  failure  of  God's  season's  charge 
as  its  compensation  —  or  under  the  advance  at 
the  farm  which  enriches  the  farmer,  or  under  that 
competitive  demand  which  bespeaks  brisk  pros- 

177 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

perity  —  this  people  made  the  prey  and  the  sport 
of  plunderers  who  levy  tribute  through  a  system 
that  mocks  at  God's  recurring  rains,  knows  not 
the  farmer,  and  locks  competition  in  the  grasp  of 
monopoly.  And  the  millions,  thus  wrung  from 
the  people,  loaned  back  to  them  at  usury,  laying 
the  blight  of  the  mortgage  on  their  homes,  and 
the  obligation  of  debt  on  their  manhood.  Talk 
about  the  timidity  of  capital.  That  is  a  forgot 
ten  phrase.  In  the  power  and  irresponsibility  of 
this  sudden  and  enormous  wealth  is  bred  an  in 
solence  that  knows  no  bounds.  "  The  public  be 
damned ! "  was  the  sentiment  of  the  plutocrats, 
speaking  through  the  voice  of  Vanderbilt's  mil 
lions.  In  cornering  the  product  and  levying  the 
tribute  —  in  locking  up  abundant  supply  until 
the  wheels  of  industry  stop  —  in  oppressing 
through  trusts,  and  domineering  in  the  strength 
of  corporate  power,  the  plutocrats  do  what  no 
political  party  would  dare  attempt  and  what  no 
government  on  this  earth  would  enforce.  The 
Czar  of  Russia  would  not  dare  hold  up  a  product 
until  the  mill  wheels  were  idle,  or  lay  an  unusual 
tax  on  bread  and  meat  to  replenish  his  coffers, 
and  yet  these  things  our  plutocrats,  flagrant  and 
irresponsible,  do  day  after  day  until  public  indig 
nation  is  indignant  and  shame  is  lost  in  wonder. 
And  when  an  outraged  people  turn  to  govern 
ment  for  help,  what  do  they  find  ?  Their  govern- 

178 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

ment  in  the  hands  of  a  party  that  is  in  sympathy 
with  their  oppressors,  that  was  returned  to 
power  with  votes  purchased  with  their  money, 
and  whose  confessed  leaders  declared  that  trusts 
are  largely  private  concerns  with  which  the 
government  had  naught  to  do.  Not  only  is  the 
dominant  party  the  apologist  of  the  plutocrats 
and  the  beneficiary  of  their  crimes,  but  it  is 
based  on  that  principle  of  centralization  through 
which  they  came  into  life  and  on  which  alone 
they  can  exist.  It  holds  that  sovereignty  should 
be  taken  from  the  states  and  lodged  with  the 
nation  —  that  political  powers  and  privileges 
should  be  wrested  from  the  people  and  guarded 
at  the  Capitol.  It  distrusts  the  people,  and  even 
now  demands  that  your  ballot  boxes  shall  be 
hedged  about  by  its  bayonets.  It  declares  that 
a  strong  government  is  better  than  a  free  govern 
ment,  and  that  national  authority,  backed  by 
national  armies  and  treasury,  is  a  better  guar 
antee  of  peace  and  prosperity  than  liberty  and 
enlightenment  diffused  among  the  people.  To 
defend  this  policy,  that  cannot  be  maintained  by 
argument  or  sustained  by  the  love  or  confidence 
of  the  people,  it  rallies  under  its  flag  the  merce 
naries  of  the  Republic,  the  syndicate,  the  trust, 
the  monopolist,  and  the  plutocrat,  and  strength 
ening  them  by  grant  and  protection,  rejoices  as 
they  grow  richer  and  the  people  grow  poorer. 

179 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

Confident  in  the  debauching  power  of  money 
and  the  unscrupulous  audacity  of  their  creatures, 
they  catch  the  spirit  of  Vanderbilt's  defiance  and 
call  aloud  from  their  ramparts,  "  The  people  be 
damned  !  "  I  charge  that  this  party  has  bought 
its  way  for  twenty  years.  Its  nucleus  was  the 
passion  that  survived  the  war,  and  around  this 
it  has  gathered  the  protected  manufacturer,  the 
pensioned  soldier,  the  licensed  monopolist,  the 
privileged  corporation,  the  unchallenged  trust  — 
all  whom  power  can  daunt  or  money  can  buy  — 
and  with  these  in  close  and  constant  phalanx  it 
holds  the  government  against  the  people.  Not  a 
man  in  all  its  ranks  that  is  not  influenced  by 
prejudice  or  bought  by  privilege. 

What  a  spectacle,  my  countrymen !  This  free 
Republic  in  the  hands  of  a  party  that  withdraws 
sovereignty  from  the  people  that  its  own  author 
ity  may  be  made  supreme,  that  fans  the  smol 
dering  embers  of  war,  and  loosing  among  the 
people  the  dogs  of  privilege  and  monopoly  to 
hunt,  and  harrow  and  rend,  that  its  lines  may  be 
made  stronger  and  its  ramparts  fortified.  And 
now,  it  is  committed  to  a  crime  that  is  without 
precedent  or  parallel  in  the  history  of  any  peo 
ple,  and  this  crime  it  is  obliged  by  its  own  ne 
cessity  as  well  as  by  its  pledge  to  commit  as  soon 
as  it  gets  the  full  reins  of  power.  This  crime  is 
hidden  in  the  bill  known  as  the  Service  Pension 

180 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

Bill,  which  pensions  every  man  who  enlisted  for 
sixty  days  for  the  Union  army.  Let  us  ex 
amine  this  pension  list.  Twelve  years  ago  it 
footed  146,000,000.  Last  year  it  was  $81,000,000. 
This  year  it  has  already  run  over  $100,000,000. 
Of  this  amount  Georgia  pays  about  $3,500,000  a 
year.  Think  of  it !  The  money  that  her  people 
have  paid,  through  indirect  taxation  into  the 
treasury,  is  given,  let  us  say,  to  Iowa,  for  that 
State  just  equals  Georgia  in  population.  Every 
year  $3,500,000  wrung  from  her  pockets  and 
sent  into  Iowa  as  pensions  for  her  soldiers. 
Since  1865,  out  of  her  poverty,  Georgia  has  paid 
$51,000,000  as  pensions  to  Northern  soldiers, — 
one  sixth  of  the  value  of  her  whole  property. 
And  now  it  is  proposed  to  enlarge  the  pension 
list  until  it  includes  every  man  who  enlisted  for 
sixty  days.  They  will  not  fail.  The  last  Con 
gress  passed  a  pension  bill  that  Commissioner 
Black  —  himself  a  gallant  Union  general  — 
studied  deliberately,  and  then  told  the  President 
that  if  he  signed  it,  it  would  raise  the  pension 
list  to  $200,000,000,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
love  of  the  people  that  ran  in  the  veins  of  Grover 
Cleveland  and  the  courage  of  Democracy  which 
flamed  in  his  heart,  that  bill  would  have  been 
law  to-day.  A  worse  bill  will  be  offered.  There 
is  a  surplus  of  $120,000,000  in  the  treasury. 
While  that  remains  it  endangers  the  protective 

181 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

tariff,  behind  which  the  trained  captains  of  the 
Republican  party  muster  their  men.  But  let  the 
pension  list  be  lifted  to  $200,000,000  a  year. 
Then  the  surplus  is  gone  and  a  deficiency  created, 
and  the  protective  tariff  must  be  not  only  per 
petuated  but  deepened,  and  the  vigilance  of  the 
spies  and  collectors  increased  to  meet  the  de 
mands  of  the  government.  And  back  of  it  all 
will  be  mustered  the  army  of  a  million  and  a 
half  pensioners,  drawing  their  booty  from  the 
Republican  party  and  giving  it  in  turn  their 
purchased  allegiance  and  support. 

My  countrymen,  a  thousand  times  I  have 
thought  of  that  historic  scene  beneath  the  apple 
tree  at  Appomattox,  of  Lee's  8000  ragged,  half- 
starved  immortals,  going  home  to  begin  anew 
amid  the  ashes  of  their  homes,  and  the  graves  of 
their  dead,  the  weary  struggle  for  existence,  and 
Grant's  68,000  splendid  soldiers,  well  fed  and 
equipped,  going  home  to  riot  amid  the  plenty  of 
a  grateful  and  prosperous  people,  and  I  have 
thought  how  hard  it  was  that  out  of  our  poverty 
we  should  be  taxed  to  pay  their  pension,  and  to 
divide  with  this  rich  people  the  crust  we  scraped 
up  from  the  ashes  of  our  homes.  And  I  have 
thought  when  their  maimed  and  helpless  soldiers 
were  sheltered  in  superb  homes,  and  lapped  in 
luxury,  while  our  poor  cripples  limped  along  the 
highway  or  hid  their  shame  in  huts,  or  broke 

182 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

bitter  bread  in  the  county  poorhouse,  how  hard 
it  was  that,  of  all  the  millions  we  send  them  an 
nually,  we  can  save  not  one  dollar  to  go  to  our 
old  heroes,  who  deserve  so  much  and  get  so  little. 
And  yet  we  made  no  complaint.  We  were  will 
ing  that  every  Union  soldier  made  helpless  by 
the  war  should  have  his  pension  and  his  home, 
and  thank  God,  without  setting  our  crippled  sol 
diers  on  the  curbstone  of  distant  Babylons  to  beg, 
as  blind  Belisarius  did,  from  the  passing  stranger. 
We  have  provided  them  a  home  in  which  they 
can  rest  in  honorable  peace  until  God  has  called 
them  hence  to  a  home  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens.  We  have  not  complained 
that  our  earnings  have  gone  to  pension  Union  sol 
diers  —  the  maimed  soldiers  of  the  Union  armies. 
But  the  scheme  to  rob  the  people  that  every  man 
who  enlisted  for  sixty  days,  or  his  widow,  shall 
be  supported  at  public  expense  is  an  outrage  that 
must  not  be  submitted  to.  It  is  not  patriotism 
—  it  is  politics.  It  is  not  honesty  —  it  is  plunder. 
The  South  has  played  a  patient  and  a  waiting 
game  for  twenty  years,  fearing  to  protest  against 
what  she  knew  to  be  wrong  in  the  fear  that  she 
would  be  misunderstood.  I  fear  that  she  has 
gained  little  by  this  course  save  the  contempt  of 
her  enemies.  The  time  has  come  when  she  should 
stand  upright  among  the  States  of  this  Republic 
and  declare  her  mind  and  stand  by  her  convictions. 

183 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

She  must  not  stand  silent  while  this  crowning  out 
rage  is  perpetrated.  It  means  that  the  Republi 
can  party  will  loot  the  treasury  to  recruit  its  ranks 
—  that  170,000,000  a  year  shall  be  taken  from  the 
South  to  enrich  the  North,  thus  building  up  one 
section  against  another — that  the  protective  tariff 
shall  be  deepened,  thus  building  one  class  against 
another,  and  that  the  party  of  trusts  and  mo 
nopoly  shall  be  kept  in  power,  the  autonomy  of 
the  Republic  lost,  the  government  centralized,  the 
oligarchs  established,  and  justice  to  the  people 
postponed.  But  this  party  will  not  prevail,  even 
though  its  pension  bill  should  pass,  and  its  pre- 
torial  God  be  established  in  every  Northern  State. 
It  was  Louis  XVI  who  peddled  the  taxing  privi 
leges  toTiis  friends,  and  when  the  people  protested 
surrounded  himself  with  an  army  of  Swiss  mer 
cenaries.  His  minister,  Neckar,  said  to  him  : 
"  Sire,  I  beseech  you  send  away  these  Swiss  and 
trust  your  own  people  ; "  but  the  king,  confident 
in  his  strength  and  phalanx,  buckled  it  close  about 
him  and  plundered  the  people  until  his  head  paid 
the  penalty  of  his  crime.  So  this  party,  barter 
ing  privileges  and  setting  up  classes,  may  feel  se 
cure  as  it  closes  the  ranks  of  its  mercenaries,  but 
some  day  the  great  American  heart  will  burst 
with  righteous  wrath,  and  the  voice  of  the  people, 
which  is  the  voice  of  God,  will  challenge  the  trai 
tors,  and  the  great  masses  will  rise  in  their  might, 

184 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

and,  breaking  down  the  defenses  of  the  oligarchs, 
will  hurl  them  from  power  and  restore  this  Re 
public  to  the  old  moorings  from  which  it  had 
been  swept  by  the  storm. 

The  government  can  protect  its  citizens.  It  is 
of  the  people,  and  it  shall  not  perish  from  the 
face  of  'the  earth.  It  can  top  off  these  colossal 
fortunes  and,  by  an  income  tax,  retard  their 
growth.  It  can  set  a  limit  to  personal  and 
corporate  wealth.  It  can  take  trusts  and  syndi 
cates  by  the  throat.  It  can  shatter  monopoly ; 
it  can  equalize  the  burden  of  taxation;  it  can 
distribute  its  privileges  impartially ;  it  can  clothe 
with  credit  its  land  now  discredited  at  its  banks  ; 
it  can  lift  the  burdens  from  the  farmer's  shoulders, 
give  him  equal  strength  to  bear  them— *- it  can 
trust  the  people  in  whose  name  this  Republic 
was  founded;  in  whose  courage  it  was  de 
fended;  in  whose  wisdom  it  has  been  admin 
istered,  and  whose  stricken  love  and  confidence 
it  cannot  survive. 

But  the  government,  no  matter  what  it  does, 
does  not  do  all  that  is  needed,  nor  the  most ; 
that  is  conceded,  for  all  true  reform  must  begin 
with  the  people  at  their  homes.  A  few  Sundays 
ago  I  stood  on  a  hill  in  Washington.  My  heart 
thrilled  as  I  looked  on  the  towering  marble  of 
my  country's  Capitol,  and  a  mist  gathered  in  my 
eyes  as,  standing  there,  I  thought  of  its  tremendous 

185 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

significance  and  the  powers  there  assembled,  and 
the  responsibilities  there  centered — its  President, 
its  congress,  its  courts,  its  gathered  treasure,  its 
army,  its  navy,  and  its  60,000,000  of  citizens.  It 
seemed  to  me  the  best  and  mightiest  sight  that 
the  sun  could  find  in  its  wheeling  course  —  this 
majestic  home  of  a  Republic  that  has  taught  the 
world  its  best  lessons  of  liberty  —  and  I  felt  that 
if  wisdom  and  justice  and  honor  abided  therein, 
the  world  would  stand  indebted  to  this  temple 
on  which  my  eyes  rested,  and  in  which  the  ark  of 
my  covenant  was  lodged  for  its  final  uplifting 
and  regeneration. 

A  few  days  later  I  visited  a  country  home. 
A  modest,  quiet  house  sheltered  by  great  trees 
and  set  in  a  circle  of  field  and  meadow,  gracious 
with  the  promise  of  harvest ;  barns  and  cribs 
well  filled  and  the  old  smokehouse  odorous  with 
treasure ;  the  fragrance  of  pink  and  hollyhock 
mingling  with  the  aroma  of  garden  and  orchard, 
and  resonant  with  the  hum  of  bees  and  poultry's 
busy  clucking;  inside  the  house,  thrift,  comfort, 
and  that  cleanliness  that  is  next  to  godliness,  — 
the  restful  beds,  the  open  fireplace,  the  books 
and  papers,  and  the  old  clock  that  had  held  its 
steadfast  pace  amid  the  frolic  of  weddings,  that 
has  welcomed  in  steady  measure  the  newborn 
babes  of  the  family,  and  kept  company  with  the 
watchers  of  the  sick  bed,  and  had  ticked  the  solemn 

186 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

requiem  of  the  dead;  and  the  well-worn  Bible 
that,  thumbed  by  fingers  long  since  stilled,  and 
blurred  with  tears  of  eyes  long  since  closed,  held 
the  simple  annals  of  the  family,  and  the  heart 
and  conscience  of  the  home.  Outside  stood  the 
master,  strong  and  wholesome  and  upright; 
wearing  no  man's  collar ;  with  no  mortgage  on 
his  roof,  and  no  lien  on  his  ripening  harvest; 
pitching  his  crops  in  his  own  wisdom,  and  selling 
them  in  his  own  time  in  his  chosen  market ; 
master  of  his  lands  and  master  of  himself.  Near 
by  stood  his  aged  father,  happy  in  the  heart  and 
home  of  his  son.  And  as  they  started  to  the 
house  the  old  man's  hands  rested  on  the  young 
man's  shoulder,  touching  it  with  the  knighthood 
of  the  fourth  commandment,  and  laying  there  the 
unspeakable  blessing  of  an  honored  and  grateful 
father.  As  they  drew  near  the  door,  the  old 
mother  appeared ;  the  sunset  falling  on  her  face, 
softening  its  wrinkles  and  its  tenderness,  lighting 
up  her  patient  eyes,  and  the  rich  music  of  her 
heart  trembling  on  her  lips,  as  in  simple  phrase 
she  welcomed  her  husband  and  son  to  their  home. 
Beyond  was  the  good  wife,  true  of  touch  and 
tender,  happy  amid  her  household  cares,  clean  of 
heart  and  conscience,  the  helpmate  and  the  buckler 
of  her  husband.  And  the  children,  strong  and 
sturdy,  trooping  down  the  lane  with  the  lowing 
herd,  or  weary  of  simple  sport,  seeking,  as  truant 

187 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

birds  do,  the  quiet  of  the  old  home  nest.  And  I 
saw  the  night  descend  on  that  home,  falling 
gently  as  from  the  wings  of  the  unseen  dove. 
And  the  stars  swarmed  in  the  bending  skies,  the 
trees  thrilled  with  the  cricket's  cry,  the  restless 
bird  called  from  the  neighboring  wood,  and  the 
father,  a  simple  man  of  God,  gathering  the  family 
about  him,  read  from  the  Bible  the  old,  old 
story  of  love  and  faith,  and  then  went  down  in 
prayer,  the  baby  hidden  amid  the  folds  of  its 
mother's  dress,  and  closed  the  record  of  that 
simple  day  by  calling  down  the  benediction  of 
God  on  the  family  and  the  home ! 

And  as  I  gazed  the  memory  of  the  great  Capi 
tol  faded  from  my  brain.  Forgotten  its  treasure 
and  its  splendor.  And  I  said,  "  Surely  here  — 
here  in  the  homes  of  the  people  is  lodged  the  ark  of 
the  covenant  of  my  country.  Here  is  its  majesty 
and  its  strength.  Here  the  beginning  of  its  power 
and  the  end  of  its  responsibility."  The  homes  of 
the  people;  let  us  keep  them  pure  and  independent, 
and  all  will  be  well  with  the  Republic.  Here  is 
the  lesson  our  foes  may  learn — here  is  work  the 
humblest  and  weakest  hands  may  do.  Let  us  in 
simple  thrift  and  economy  make  our  homes  in 
dependent.  Let  us  in  frugal  industry  make 
them  self-sustaining.  In  sacrifice  and  denial  let 
us  keep  them  free  from  debt  and  obligation. 
Let  us  make  them  homes  of  refinement  in  which 

188 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

we  shall  teach  our  daughters  that  modesty  and 
patience  and  gentleness  are  the  charms  of  woman. 
Let  us  make  them  temples  of  liberty,  and  teach 
our  sons  that  an  honest  conscience  is  every  man's 
first  political  law;  that  his  sovereignty  rests 
beneath  his  hat,  and  that  no  splendor  can  rob 
him  and  no  force  justify  the  surrender  of  the 
simplest  right  of  a  free  and  independent  citizen. 
And  above  all  let  us  honor  God  in  our  avocations 
—  anchor  them  close  in  His  love.  Build  His  al 
tars  above  our  hearthstones,  uphold  them  in  the 
set  and  simple  faith  of  our  fathers,  and  crown 
thern  with  the  Bible — that  book  of  books  in 
which  all  the  ways  of  life  are  made  straight  and 
the  mystery  of  death  is  made  plain.  The  home 
is  the  source  of  our  national  life.  Back  of  the 
national  Capitol  and  above  it  stands  the  home. 
Back  of  the  President  and  above  him  stands  the 
citizen.  What  the  home  is,  this  and  nothing 
else  will  the  Capitol  be.  What  the  citizen  wills, 
this  and  nothing  else  will  the  President  be. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  am  no  farmer.  I  have  not 
sought  to  teach  you  the  details  of  your  work, 
for  I  know  little  of  them.  I  have  not  commended 
your  splendid  local  advantages,  for  that  I  shall  do 
elsewhere.  I  have  not  discussed  the  differences 
between  the  farmer  and  other  classes,  for  I 
believe  in  essential  things  there  is  no  difference 
between  them,  and  that  minor  differences  should 

189 


ORATIONS  AND^  SPEECHES 

be  sacrificed  to  the  greater  interest  that  depends 
on  a  united  people.  I  seek  not  to  divide  our 
people,  but  to  unite  them.  I  should  despise  my 
self  if  I  pandered  to  the  prejudice  of  either  class 
to  win  the  applause  of  the  other. 

But  I  have  noted  these  great  movements  that 
destroy  the  equilibrium  and  threaten  the  pros 
perity  of  my  country,  and  standing  above  passion 
and  prejudice  or  demagoguery  I  invoke  every 
true  citizen,  fighting  from  his  hearthstone  out 
ward,  with  the  prattle  of  his  children  on  his  ear, 
and  the  hand  of  his  wife  and  mother  closely 
clasped,  to  determine  here  to  make  his  home 
sustaining  and  independent,  and  to  pledge  eternal 
hostility  to  the  forces  that  threaten  our  liberties 
and  the  party  that  stands  behind  it. 

When  I  think  of  the  tremendous  force  of  the 
currents  against  which  we  must  fight,  of  the 
great  political  party  in  that  fight,  of  the  count 
less  host  of  mercenaries  that  fight  under  its  flag, 
of  the  enormous  powers  of  government  privilege 
and  monopoly  that  back  them  up,  I  confess  my 
heart  sinks  within  me,  and  I  grow  faint.  But  I 
remember  that  the  servant  of  Elisha  looked 
abroad  from  Samaria  and  beheld  the  hosts  that 
encompassed  the  city,  and  said  in  agonized  fear  : 
"  Alas,  master,  what  shall  we  do  ? "  and  the 
answer  of  Elisha  was  the  answer  of  every  brave 
man  and  faithful  heart  in  all  ages :  "  Fear  not, 

190 


THE -FARMER  AND  THE  CITIES 

for  they  that  be  with  us  are  more  than  they  that 
be  with  them,"  and  this  faith  opened  the  eyes  of 
the  servant  of  the  man  of  God,  and  he  looked 
up  again,  and  lo,  the  air  was  filled  with  chariots 
of  fire,  and  the  mountains  were  filled  with  horse 
men,  and  they  compassed  the  city  about  as  a 
mighty  and  unconquerable  host.  Let  us  fight  in 
such  faith,  and  fear  not.  The  air  all  about  us  is 
filled  with  chariots  of  unseen  allies,  and  the 
mountains  are  thronged  with  unseen  knights  that 
shall  fight  with  us.  Fear  not,  for  they  that  be 
with  us  are  more  than  they  that  be  with  them. 
Buckle  on  your  armor,  gird  about  your  loins, 
stand  upright  and  dauntless  while  I  summon 
you  to  the  presence  of  the  immortal  dead.  Your 
fathers  and  mine  yet  live,  though  they  speak  not, 
and  will  consecrate  this  air  with  their  wheel 
ing  chariots,  and  above  them  and  beyond  them 
to  the  Lord  God  Almighty,  King  of  the  Hosts  in 
whose  unhindered  splendor  we  stand  this  morn 
ing.  Look  up  to  them,  be  of  good  cheer,  and  faint 
not,  for  they  shall  fight  with  us  when  we  strike 
for  liberty  and  truth,  and  all  the  world,  though 
it  be  banded  against  us,  shall  not  prevail  against 
them. 


191 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

A  speech  delivered  at  the  annual  banquet  of  the  Boston 
Merchants'  Association,  December,  1889 

MB.  PRESIDENT  :  Bidden  by  your  invitation  to 
a  discussion  of  the  race  problem  —  forbidden  by 
occasion  to  make  a  political  speech  —  I  appre 
ciate  in  trying  to  reconcile  orders  with  pro 
priety  the  predicament  of  the  little  maid,  who, 
bidden  to  learn  to  swim,  was  yet  adjured,  "  Now, 
go,  my  darling,  hang  your  clothes  on  a  hickory 
limb,  and  don't  go  near  the  water." 

The  stoutest  apostle  of  the  church,  they  say, 
is  the  missionary,  and  the  missionary,  wherever 
he  unfurls  his  flag,  will  never  find  himself  in 
deeper  need  of  unction  and  address  than  I, 
bidden  to-night  to  plant  the  standard  of  a 
Southern  Democrat  in  Boston's  banquet  hall,  and 
discuss  the  problem  of  the  races  in  the  home  of 
Phillips  and  of  Sumner.  But,  Mr.  President,  if 
a  purpose  to  speak  in  perfect  frankness  and  sin 
cerity  ;  if  earnest  understanding  of  the  vast 
interests  involved ;  if  a  consecrating  sense  of 
what  disaster  may  follow  further  misunderstand 
ing  and  estrangement,  if  these  may  be  counted 
to  steady  undisciplined  speech  and  to  strengthen 

192 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

an  untried  arm  —  then,  sir,  I  find  the  courage  to 
proceed. 

Happy  am  I  that  this  mission  has  brought  my 
feet  at  last  to  press  New  England's  historic  soil, 
and  my  eyes  to  the  knowledge  of  her  beauty 
and  her  thrift.  Here,  within  touch  of  Plymouth 
Rock  and  Bunker  Hill  —  where  Webster  thun 
dered  and  Longfellow  sang,  Emerson  thought  and 
Channing  preached  — here  in  the  cradle  of  Amer 
ican  letters,  and  almost  of  American  liberty,  I 
hasten  to  make  the  obeisance  that  every  Amer 
ican  owes  New  England  when  first  he  stands 
uncovered  in  her  mighty  presence.  Strange 
apparition  !  This  stern  and  unique  figure,  carved 
from  the  ocean  and  the  wilderness,  its  majesty 
kindling  and  growing  amid  the  storms  of  winters 
and  of  wars,  until  at  last  the  gloom  was  broken, 
its  beauty  disclosed  in  the  sunshine,  and  the 
heroic  workers  rested  at  its  base,  while  startled 
kings  and  emperors  gazed  and  marveled  that  from 
the  rude  touch  of  this  handful,  cast  on  a  bleak 
and  unknown  shore,  should  have  come  the  em 
bodied  genius  of  human  government  and  the 
perfected  model  of  human  liberty  !  God  bless 
the  memory  of  those  immortal  workers  and 
prosper  the  fortunes  of  their  living  sons  and 
perpetuate  the  inspirations  of  their  handiwork. 

Two  years  ago,  sir,  I  spoke  some  words  in  New 
York  that  caught  the  attention  of  the  North. 
o  193 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

As  I  stand  here  to  reiterate,  as  I  have  done  every 
where,  every  word  I  then  uttered  —  to  declare 
that  the  sentiments  I  then  avowed  were  univer 
sally  approved  in  the  South  —  I  realize  that  the 
confidence  begotten  by  that  speech  is  largely  re 
sponsible  for  my  presence  here  to-night.  I  should 
dishonor  myself  if  I  betrayed  that  confidence  by 
uttering  one  insincere  word  or  by  witholding  one 
essential  element  of  the  truth.  Apropos  of  this 
last,  let  me  confess,  Mr.  President  —  before  the 
praise  of  New  England  has  died  on  my  lips  — 
that  I  believe  the  best  product  of  her  present  life 
is  the  procession  of  17,000  Vermont  Democrats 
that  for  twenty-two  years,  undiminished  by  death, 
unrecruited  by  birth  or  conversion,  have  marched 
over  their  rugged  hills,  cast  their  Democratic 
ballots,  and  gone  back  home  to  pray  for  their 
unregenerate  neighbors,  and  awake  to  read  the 
record  of  25,000  Republican  majority.  May  God 
of  the  helpless  and  the  heroic  help  them  —  and 
may  their  sturdy  tribe  increase ! 

Far  to  the  south,  Mr.  President,  separated  from 
this  section  by  a  line,  once  defined  in  irrepressible 
difference,  once  traced  in  fratricidal  blood,  and 
now,  thank  God,  but  a  vanishing  shadow,  lies 
the  fairest  and  richest  domain  of  this  earth.  It 
is  the  home  of  a  brave  and  hospitable  people. 
There,  is  centered  all  that  can  please  or  prosper 
humankind.  A  perfect  climate  above  a  fertile 

194 


THE,  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

soil  yields  to  the  husbandman  every  product  of 
the  temperate  zone.  There,  by  night  the  cotton 
whitens  beneath  the  stars,  and  by  day  the  wheat 
locks  the  sunshine  in  its  bearded  sheaf.  In  the 
same  field  the  clover  steals  the  fragrance  of  the 
wind,  and  the  tobacco  catches  the  quick  aroma 
of  the  rains.  There,  are  mountains  stored  with 
exhaustless  treasures  ;  forests,  vast  and  primeval, 
and  rivers  that,  tumbling  or  loitering,  run  wan 
ton  to  the  sea.  Of  the  three  essential  items  of  all 
industries  —  cotton,  iron,  and  wood  —  that  region 
has  easy  control.  In  cotton,  a  fixed  monopoly; 
in  iron,  proven  supremacy ;  in  timber,  the  reserve 
supply  of  the  Republic.  From  this  assured  and 
permanent  advantage,  against  which  artificial  con 
ditions  cannot  much  longer  prevail,  has  grown 
an  amazing  system  of  industries.  Not  maintained 
by  human  contrivance  of  tariff  or  capital,  afar 
off  from  the  fullest  and  cheapest  source  of  supply, 
but  resting  in  divine  assurance,  within  touch  of 
field  and  mine  and  forest — not  set  amid  costly 
farms  from  which  competition  has  driven  the 
farmer  in  despair,  but  amid  cheap  and  sunny 
lands,  rich  with  agriculture,  to  which  neither 
season  nor  soil  has  set  a  limit — this  system  of 
industries  is  mounting  to  a  splendor  that  shall 
dazzle  and  illumine  the  world. 

That,  sir,  is  the  picture  and  the  promise  of  my 
home  — a  land  better  and  fairer  than  I  have  told 

195 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

you,  and  yet  but  fit  setting,  in  its  material  excel 
lence,  for  the  loyal  and  gentle  quality  of  its  citi 
zenship.  Against  that,  sir,  we  have  New  England, 
recruiting  the  Republic  from  its  sturdy  loins, 
shaking  from  its  overcrowded  hives  new  swarms 
of  workers  and  touching  this  land  all  over  with 
its  energy  and  its  courage.  And  yet,  while  in 
the  El  Dorado  of  which  I  have  told  you,  but  15  per 
cent  of  its  lands  are  cultivated,  its  mines  scarcely 
touched,  and  its  population  so  scant  that,  were  it 
set  equidistant,  the  sound  of  the  human  voice 
could  not  be  heard  from  Virginia  to  Texas — 
while  on  the  threshold  of  nearly  every  house  in 
New  England  stands  a  son,  seeking  with  troubled 
eyes  some  new  land  to  which  to  carry  his  modest 
patrimony,  the  strange  fact  remains  that  in  1880 
the  South  had  fewer  Northern-born  citizens  than 
she  had  in  1870,  fewer  in  '70  than  in  '60.  Why 
is  this  ?  Why  is  it,  sir,  though  the  sectional  line 
be  now  but  a  mist  that  the  breath  may  dispel, 
fewer  men  of  the  North  have  crossed  it  over  to 
the  South  than  when  it  was  crimson  with  the 
best  blood  of  the  Republic,  or  even  when  the 
slaveholder  stood  guard  every  inch  of  its  way  ? 

There  can  be  but  one  answer.  It  is  the  very 
problem  we  are  now  to  consider.  The  key  that 
opens  that  problem  will  unlock  to  the  world  the 
fairer  half  of  this  Republic,  and  free  the  halted 
feet  of  thousands  whose  eyes  are  already  kindled 

196 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

with  its  beauty.  Better  than  this,  it  will  open 
the  hearts  of  brothers  for  thirty  years  estranged, 
and  clasp  in  lasting  comradeship  a  million  hands 
now  withheld  in  doubt.  Nothing,  sir,  but  this 
problem,  and  the  suspicions  it  breeds,  hinders  a 
clear  understanding  and  a  perfect  union.  Noth 
ing  else  stands  between  us  and  such  love  as  bound 
Georgia  and  Massachusetts  at  Valley  Forge  and 
Yorktown,  chastened  by  the  sacrifices  at  Manas- 
sas  and  Gettysburg,  and  illumined  with  the  com 
ing  of  better  work  and  a  nobler  destiny  than  was 
ever  wrought  with  the  sword  or  sought  at  the 
cannon's  mouth. 

If  this  does  not  invite  your  patient  hearing 
to-night,  hear  one  thing  more.  My  people,  your 
brothers  in  the  South  —  brothers  in  blood,  in 
destiny,  in  all  that  is  best  in  our  past  and  future 
—  are  so  beset  with  this  problem  that  their  very 
existence  depends  upon  its  right  solution.  Nor 
are  they  wholly  to  blame  for  its  presence.  The 
slave  ships  of  the  Republic  sailed  from  your 
ports,  the  slaves  worked  in  our  fields.  You  will 
not  defend  the  traffic,  nor  I  the  institution.  But 
I  do  hereby  declare  that  in  its  wise  and  humane 
administration,  in  lifting  the  slave  to  heights  of 
which  he  had  not  dreamed  in  his  savage  home, 
and  giving  him  a  happiness  he  has  not  yet  found 
in  freedom,  our  fathers  left  their  sons  a  saving 
and  excellent  heritage.  In  the  storm  of  war  this 

197 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

institution  was  lost.  I  thank  God  as  heartily  as 
you  do  that  human  slavery  is  gone  forever  from 
the  American  soil. 

But  the  freedman  remains.  With  him  a  prob 
lem  without  precedent  or  parallel.  Note  its  ap 
palling  conditions.  Two  utterly  dissimilar  races 
on  the  same  soil,  with  equal  political  and  civil 
rights,  almost  equal  in  numbers,  but  terribly 
unequal  in  intelligence  and  responsibility,  each 
pledged  against  fusion,  one  for  a  century  in  ser 
vitude  to  the  other,  and  freed  at  last  by  a  deso 
lating  war,  the  experiment  sought  by  neither, 
but  approached  by  both  with  doubt  —  these  are 
the  conditions.  Under  these,  adverse  at  every 
point,  we  are  required  to  carry  these  two  races 
in  peace  and  honor  to  the  end.  Never,  sir,  has 
such  a  task  been  given  to  mortal  stewardship. 
Never  before  in  this  Republic  has  the  white  race 
divided  on  the  rights  of  an  alien  race.  The  red 
man  was  cut  down  as  a  weed,  because  he  hindered 
the  way  of  the  American  citizen.  The  yellow 
man  was  shut  out  of  this  Republic  because  he  is 
an  alien  and  inferior.  The  red  man  was  owner 
of  the  land,  the  yellow  man  highly  civilized  and 
assimilable,  but  they  hindered  both  sections  — 
and  are  gone ! 

But  the  black  man,  affecting  but  one  section, 
is  clothed  with  every  privilege  of  government  and 
pinned  to  the  soil,  and  my  people  commanded  to 

198 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

make  good  at  any  hazard  and  at  any  cost,  his 
full  and  equal  heirship  of  American  privilege 
and  prosperity.  It  matters  not  that  wherever 
the  whites  and  blacks  have  touched,  in  any  era 
or  any  clime,  there  has  been  irreconcilable  vio 
lence.  It  matters  not  that  no  two  races,  how 
ever  similar,  have  lived  anywhere  at  any  time 
on  the  same  soil  with  equal  rights  in  peace.  In 
spite  of  these  things  we  are  commanded  to  make 
good  this  change  of  American  policy  which  has 
not  perhaps  changed  American  prejudice,  to  make 
certain  here  what  has  elsewhere  been  impossible 
between  whites  and  blacks,  and  to  reverse,  under 
the  very  worst  conditions,  the  universal  verdict 
of  racial  history.  And  driven,  sir,  to  this  super 
human  task  with  an  impatience  that  brooks  no 
delay,  a  rigor  that  accepts  no  excuse,  and  a  sus 
picion  that  discourages  frankness  and  sincerity. 
We  do  not  shrink  from  this  trial.  It  is  so  inter 
woven  with  our  industrial  fabric  that  we  cannot 
disentangle  it  if  we  would  —  so  bound  up  in  our 
honorable  obligation  to  the  world,  that  we  would 
not  if  we  could.  Can  we  solve  it  ?  The  God 
who  gave  it  into  our  hands,  He  alone  can  know. 
But  this  the  weakest  and  wisest  of  us  do  know : 
we  cannot  solve  it  with  less  than  your  tolerant 
and  patient  sympathy,  with  less  than  the  knowl 
edge  that  the  blood  that  runs  in  your  veins  is  our 
blood,  and  that  when  we  have  done  our  best, 

199 


ORATIONS  AND   SPEECHES 

whether  the  issue  be  lost  or  won,  we  shall  feel 
your  strong  arms  about  us  and  hear  the  beating 
of  your  approving  hearts. 

The  resolute,  clear-headed,  broad-minded  men 
of  the  South,  the  men  whose  genius  made  glo 
rious  every  page  of  the  first  seventy  years  of 
American  history,  whose  courage  and  fortitude 
you  tested  in  five  years  of  the  fiercest  war, 
whose  energy  has  made  bricks  without  straw 
and  spread  splendor  amid  the  ashes  of  their 
war- wasted  homes  —  these  men  wear  this  prob 
lem  in  their  hearts  and  their  brains,  by  day  and 
by  night.  They  realize,  as  you  cannot,  what 
this  problem  means  —  what  they  owe  to  this 
kindly  and  dependent  race  —  the  measure  of 
their  debt  to  the  world  in  whose  despite  they 
defended  and  maintained  slavery.  And  though 
their  feet  are  hindered  in  its  undergrowth  and 
their  march  encumbered  with  its  burdens,  they 
have  lost  neither  the  patience  from  which  comes 
clearness  nor  the  faith  from  which  comes  cour 
age.  Nor,  sir,  when  in  passionate  moments  is 
disclosed  to  them  that  vague  and  awful  shadow, 
with  its  lurid  abysses  and  its  crimson  stains,  into 
which  I  pray  God  they  may  never  go,  are  they 
struck  with  more  of  apprehension  than  is  needed 
to  complete  their  consecration! 

Such  is  the  temper  of  my  people.  But  what 
of  the  problem  itself  ?  Mr.  President,  we  need 

200 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

not  go  one  step  further  unless  you  concede  right 
here  that  the  people  I  speak  for  are  as  honest, 
as  sensible,  and  as  just  as  your  people,  seeking  as 
earnestly  as  you  would  in  their  place,  rightly  to 
solve  the  problem  that  touches  them  at  every 
vital  point.  If  you  insist  that  they  are  ruffians, 
blindly  striving  with  bludgeon  and  shotgun  to 
plunder  and  oppress  a  race,  then  I  shall  sacrifice 
my  self-respect  and  tax  your  patience  in  vain. 
But  admit  that  they  are  men  of  common  sense 
and  common  honesty,  —  wisely  modifying  an  en 
vironment  they  cannot  wholly  disregard,  guiding 
and  controlling  as  best  they  can  the  vicious  and 
irresponsible  of  either  race,  compensating  error 
with  frankness  and  retrieving  in  patience  what 
they  lose  in  passion,  and  conscious  all  the  time 
that  wrong  means  ruin,  —  admit  this,  and  we 
may  reach  an  understanding  to-night. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  in  his  late 
message  to  Congress,  discussing  the  plea  that  the 
South  should  be  left  to  solve  this  problem,  asks : 
"  Are  they  at  work  upon  it  ?  What  solution  do 
they  offer?  When  will  the  black  man  cast  a 
free  ballot  ?  When  will  he  have  the  civil  rights 
that  are  his  ?  "  I  shall  not  here  protest  against 
the  partisanry  that,  for  the  first  time  in  our  his 
tory  in  time  of  peace,  has  stamped  with  the 
great  seal  of  our  government  a  stigma  upon  the 
people  of  a  great  and  loyal  section,  though  I 

201 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

gratefully  remember  that  the  great  dead  soldier, 
who  held  the  helm  of  State  for  the  eight  stormy 
years  of  reconstruction,  never  found  need  for 
such  a  step ;  and  though  there  is  no  personal 
sacrifice  I  would  not  make  to  remove  his  cruel 
and  unjust  imputation  on  my  people  from  the 
archives  of  my  country  ! 

But,  sir,  backed  by  a  record  on  every  page 
of  which  is  progress,  I  venture  to  make  earnest 
and  respectful  answer  to  the  questions  that  are 
asked.  I  bespeak  your  patience,  while  with 
vigorous  plainness  of  speech,  seeking  your  judg 
ment  rather  than  your  applause,  I  proceed  step 
by  step.  We  give  to  the  world  this  year  a  crop 
of  7,500,000  bales  of  cotton,  worth  $450,000,000, 
and  its  cash  equivalent  in  grain,  grasses,  and 
fruit.  This  enormous  crop  could  not  have  come 
from  the  hands  of  sullen  and  discontented  labor. 
It  comes  from  peaceful  fields,  in  which  laughter 
and  gossip  rise  above  the  hum  of  industry  and 
contentment  runs  with  the  singing  plow. 

It  is  claimed  that  this  ignorant  labor  is  de 
frauded  of  its  just  hire.  I  present  the  tax  books 
of  Georgia,  which  show  that  the  negro,  25  years 
ago  a  slave,  has  in  Georgia  alone  110,000,000  of 
assessed  property,  worth  twice  that  much.  Does 
not  that  record  honor  him  and  vindicate  his 
neighbors?  What  people,  penniless,  illiterate, 
has  done  so  well?  For  every  Afro- American  agi- 

202 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

tator,  stirring  the  strife  in  which  alone  he  pros 
pers,  I  can  show  you  a  thousand  negroes,  happy 
in  their  cabin  homes,  tilling  their  own  land  by 
day,  and  at  night  taking  from  the  lips  of  their 
children  the  helpful  message  their  State  sends 
them  from  the  schoolhouse  door.  And  the  school- 
house  itself  bears  testimony.  In  Georgia  we 
added  last  year  $  250,000  to  the  school  fund,  mak 
ing  a  total  of  more  than  $1,000,000 — and  this  in 
the  face  of  prejudice  not  yet  conquered — of  the 
fact  that  the  whites  are  assessed  for  8368,000,000, 
the  blacks  for  110,000,000,  and  yet  49  per  cent  of 
the  beneficiaries  are  black  children — and  in  the 
doubt  of  many  wise  men  if  education  helps,  or 
can  help,  our  problem.  Charleston,  with  her 
taxable  values  cut  half  in  two  since  1860,  pays 
more  in  proportion  for  public  schools  than  Bos 
ton.  Although  it  is  easier  to  give  much  out  of 
much  than  little  out  of  little,  the  South  with  one 
seventh  of  the  taxable  property  of  the  country, 
with  relatively  larger  debt,  having  received  only 
one  twelfth  as  much  public  land,  and  having  back 
of  its  tax  books  none  of  the  half  billion  of  bonds 
that  enrich  the  North — and  though  it  pays  an 
nually  $26,000,000  to  your  section  as  pensions — 
yet  gives  nearly  one  sixth  of  the  public  school 
fund.  The  South  since  1865  has  spent  $122,- 
000,000  in  education,  and  this  year  is  pledged  to 
$37,000,000  for  State  and  city  schools,  although 

203 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

the  blacks,  paying  one  thirtieth  of  the  taxes,  get 
nearly  one  half  of  the  fund. 

Go  into  our  fields  and  see  whites  and  blacks 
working  side  by  side,  on  our  buildings  in  the 
same  squad,  in  our  shops  at  the  same  forge. 
Often  the  blacks  crowd  the  whites  from  work, 
or  lower  wages  by  greater  need  or  simpler 
habits,  and  yet  are  permitted  because  we  want 
to  bar  them  from  no  avenue  in  which  their  feet 
are  fitted  to  tread.  They  could  not  there  be 
elected  orators  of  the  white  universities,  as  they 
have  been  here,  but  they  do  enter  there  a  hundred 
useful  trades  that  are  closed  against  them  here. 
We  hold  it  better  and  wiser  to  tend  the  weeds  in 
the  garden  than  to  water  the  exotic  in  the  win 
dow".  In  the  South,  there  are  negro  lawyers, 
teachers,  editors,  dentists,  doctors,  preachers, 
multiplying  with  the  increasing  ability  of  their 
race  to  support  them.  In  villages  and  towns  they 
have  their  military  companies  equipped  from  the 
armories  of  the  State,  their  churches  and  societies 
built  and  supported  largely  by  their  neighbors. 
What  is  the  testimony  of  the  courts  ?  In  penal 
legislation  we  have  steadily  reduced  felonies  to 
misdemeanors,  and  have  led  the  world  in  miti 
gating  punishment  for  crime,  that  we  might  save, 
as  far  as  possible,  this  dependent  race  from  its 
own  weakness.  In  our  penitentiary  record  60  per 
cent  of  the  prosecutors  are  negroes,  and  in  every 

204 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

court  the  negro  criminal  strikes  the  colored  juror, 
that  white  men  may  judge  his  case.  In  the 
North,  one  negro  in  every  466  is  in  jail  —  in  the 
South  only  one  in  1865.  In  the  North  the  per 
centage  of  negro  prisoners  is  six  times  as  great  as 
native  whites  —  in  the  South,  only  four  times  as 
great.  If  prejudice  wrongs  him  in  Southern 
courts,  the  record  shows  it  to  be  deeper  in  North 
ern  courts. 

I  assert  here,  and  a  bar  as  intelligent  and  up 
right  as  the  bar  of  Massachusetts  will  solemnly 
indorse  my  assertion,  that  in  the  Southern  courts, 
from  highest  to  lowest,  pleading  for  life,  liberty, 
or  property,  the  negro  has  distinct  advantage  be 
cause  he  is  a  negro,  apt  to  be  overreached,  op 
pressed  —  and  that  this  advantage  reaches  from 
the  juror  in  making  his  verdict  to  the  judge  in 
measuring  his  sentence.  Now,  Mr.  President, 
can  it  be  seriously  maintained  that  we  are  terror 
izing  the  people  from  whose  willing  hands  come 
every  year  $1,000,000,000  of  farm  crops?  Or 
have  robbed  a  people,  who  twenty-five  years  from 
unrewarded  slavery  have  amassed  in  one  State 
820,000,000  of  property  ?  Or  that  we  intend  to 
oppress  the  people  we  are  arming  every  day  ?  Or 
deceive  them  when  we  are  educating  them  to  the 
utmost  limit  of  our  ability?  Or  outlaw  them 
when  we  work  side  by  side  with  them  ?  Or  re- 
enslave  them  under  legal  forms  when  for  their 

205 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

benefit  we  have  even  imprudently  narrowed  the 
limit  of  felonies  and  mitigated  the  severity  of 
law?  My  fellow-countryman,  as  you  yourself 
may  sometimes  have  to  appeal  to  the  bar  of  hu 
man  judgment  for  justice  and  for  right,  give  to 
my  people  to-night  the  fair  and  unanswerable 
conclusion  of  these  incontestable  facts. 

But  it  is  claimed  that  under  this  fair  seeming 
there  is  disorder  and  violence.  This  I  admit. 
And  there  will  be  until  there  is  one  ideal  com 
munity  on  earth  after  which  we  may  pattern. 
But  how  widely  it  is  misjudged!  It  is  hard  to 
measure  with  exactness  whatever  touches  the 
negro.  His  helplessness,  his  isolation,  his  cen 
tury  of  servitude,  —  these  dispose  us  to  emphasize 
and  magnify  his  wrongs.  This  disposition,  in 
flamed  by  prejudice  and  partisanry,  has  led  to  in 
justice  and  delusion.  Lawless  men  may  ravage 
a  county  in  Iowa  and  it  is  accepted  as  an  inci 
dent —  in  the  South  a  drunken  row  is  declared 
to  be  the  fixed  habit  of  the  community.  Regula 
tors  may  whip  vagabonds  in  Indiana  by  platoons, 
and  it  scarcely  arrests  attention  —  a  chance  col 
lision  in  the  South  among  relatively  the  same 
classes  is  gravely  accepted  as  evidence  that  one 
race  is  destroying  the  other.  We  might  as  well 
claim  that  the  Union  was  ungrateful  to  the  col 
ored  soldiers  wrho  followed  its  flag,  because  a 
Grand  Army  post  in  Connecticut  closed  its  doors 

206 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

to  a  negro  veteran,  as  for  you  to  give  racial  sig 
nificance  to  every  incident  in  the  South  or  to 
accept  exceptional  grounds  as  the  rule  of  our  so 
ciety.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  becloud  Amer 
ican  honor  with  the  parade  of  the  outrages  of 
either  section,  and  belie  American  character  by 
declaring  them  to  be  significant  and  representa 
tive.  I  prefer  to  maintain  that  they  are  neither, 
and  stand  for  nothing  but  the  passion  and  the 
sin  of  our  poor  fallen  humanity.  If  society, 
like  a  machine,  were  no  stronger  than  its  weakest 
part,  I  should  despair  of  both  sections.  But 
knowing  that  society,  sentient  and  responsible  in 
every  fiber,  can  mend  and  repair  until  the  whole 
has  the  strength  of  the  best,  I  despair  of  neither. 

These  gentlemen  who  come  with  me  here,  knit 
into  Georgia's  busy  life  as  they  are,  never  saw,  I 
dare  assert,  an  outrage  committed  on  a  negro  ! 
And  if  they  did,  not  one  of  you  would  be  swifter 
to  prevent  or  punish.  It  is  through  them,  and 
the  men  who  think  with  them  —  making  nine 
tenths  of  every  Southern  community —  that  these 
two  races  have  been  carried  thus  far  with  less  of 
violence  than  would  have  been  possible  anywhere 
else  on  earth.  And  in  their  fairness  and  courage 
and  steadfastness,  more  than  in  all  the  laws 
that  can  be  passed  or  all  the  bayonets  that  can 
be  mustered,  is  the  hope  of  our  future. 

When  will  the  black  cast  a  free  ballot  ?  When 
207 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

ignorance  anywhere  is  not  dominated  by  the  will 
of  the  intelligent;  when  the  laborer  anywhere 
casts  a  vote  unhindered  by  his  boss  ;  when  the 
vote  of  the  poor  anywhere  is  not  influenced  by 
the  power  of  the  rich;  when  the  strong  and  the 
steadfast  do  not  everywhere  control  the  suffrage 
of  the  weak  and  shiftless  —  then  and  not  till  then 
will  the  ballot  of  the  negro  be  free.  The  white 
people  of  the  South  are  banded,  Mr.  President, 
not  in  prejudice  against  the  blacks  —  not  in  sec 
tional  estrangement,  not  in  the  hope  of  political 
dominion  —  but  in  a  deep  and  abiding  necessity. 
Here  is  this  vast  ignorant  and  purchasable  vote 

—  clannish,  credulous,  impulsive,  and  passionate 

—  tempting  every  art  of  the  demagogue,  but  in 
sensible  to  the  appeal  of  the  statesman.     Wrongly 
started,  in  that  it  was  led  into  alienation  from  its 
neighbor  and  taught  to  rely  on  the  protection  of 
an  outside    force,  it  cannot  be  merged  and  lost 
in  the  two  great  parties  through  logical  currents, 
for   it  lacks  political    conviction  and  even  that 
information  on  which  conviction  must  be  based. 
It   must   remain  a   faction  —  strong  enough    in 
every  community  to  control  on  the  slightest  divi 
sion  of  the  whites.     Under  that  division  it  be 
comes  the  prey  of  the  cunning  and  unscrupulous 
of  both  parties.     Its  credulity  is  imposed  on,  its 
patience   inflamed,  its  cupidity  tempted,  its  im 
pulses  misdirected  —  and   even   its   superstition 

208 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

made  to  play  its  part  in  a  campaign  in  which  every 
interest  of  society  is  jeopardized  and  every  ap 
proach  to  the  ballot  box  debauched.  It  is  against 
such  campaigns  as  this — the  folly  and  the  bitter 
ness  and  the  danger  of  which  every  Southern 
community  has  drunk  deeply  —  that  the  white 
people  of  the  South  are  banded  together.  Just 
as  you  in  Massachusetts  would  be  banded  if  300,- 
000  black  men  —  not  one  in  a  hundred  able  to 
read  his  ballot  —  banded  in  a  race  instinct,  hold-  j 
ing  against  you  the  memory  of  a  century  of  slav 
ery,  taught  by  your  late  conquerors  to  distrust 
and  oppose  you,  had  already  travestied  legislation 
from  your  statehouse,  and  in  every  species  of  folly 
or  villainy  had  wasted  your  substance  and  ex 
hausted  your  credit. 

But  admitting  the  right  of  the  whites  to  unite 
against  this  tremendous  menace,  we  are  chal 
lenged  with  the  smallness  of  our  vote.  This  has 
long  been  flippantly  charged  to  be  evidence,  and 
has  now  been  solemnly  and  officially  declared  to 
be  proof  of  political  turpitude  and  baseness  on 
our  part.  Let  us  see.  Virginia  —  a  State  now 
under  fierce  assault  for  this  alleged  crime  —  cast, 
in  1888,  75  per  cent  of  her  vote.  Massachusetts, 
the  State  in  which  I  speak,  60  per  cent  of  her 
vote.  Was  it  suppression  in  Virginia  and  natural 
causes  in  Massachusetts?  Last  month  Virginia 
cast  69  per  cent  of  her  vote,  and  Massachusetts, 
p  209 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

fighting  in  every  district,  cast  only  49  per  cent 
of  hers.  If  Virginia  is  condemned  because  31 
per  cent  of  her  vote  was  silent,  how  shall  this 
State  escape  in  which  51  per  cent  was  dumb  ? 
Let  us  enlarge  this  comparison.  The  sixteen 
Southern  States  in  1888  cast  67  per  cent  of  their 
total  vote  —  the  six  New  England  States  but  63 
per  cent  of  theirs.  By  what  fair  rule  shall  the 
stigma  be  put  upon  one  section,  while  the  other 
escapes  ?  A  congressional  election  in  New  York 
last  week,  with  the  polling  place  within  touch  of 
every  voter,  brought  out  only  6000  votes  of  28,- 
000  —  and  the  lack  of  opposition  is  assigned  as 
the  natural  cause.  In  a  district  in  my  State,  in 
which  an  opposition  speech  has  not  been  heard 
in  ten  years,  and  the  polling  places  are  miles  apart 
—  under  the  unfair  reasoning  of  which  my  sec 
tion  has  been  a  constant  victim  —  the  small  vote 
is  charged  to  be  proof  of  forcible  suppression. 
In  Virginia  an  average  majority  of  10,000,  under 
hopeless  division  of  the  minority,  was  raised  to 
42,000 ;  in  Iowa,  in  the  same  election,  a  majority 
of  32,000  was  wiped  out,  and  an  opposition  ma 
jority  of  8000  was  established.  The  change  of 
42,000  votes  in  Iowa  is  accepted  as  political 
revolution  —  in  Virginia  an  increase  of  30,000  on 
a  safe  majority  is  declared  to  be  proof  of  political 
fraud.  I  charge  these  facts  and  figures  home, 
sir,  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  American 

210 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

people,  who  will  not  assuredly  see  one  section 
condemned  for  what  another  section  is  excused  ! 
If  I  can  drive  them  through  the  prejudice  of 
the  partisan,  and  have  them  read  and  pondered 
at  the  fireside  of  the  citizen,  I  will  rest  on  the 
judgment  there  formed  and  the  verdict  there 
rendered  ! 

It  is  deplorable,  sir,  that  in  both  sections  a 
larger  percentage  of  the  vote  is  not  regularly 
cast,  but  more  inexplicable  that  this  should  be 
so  in  New  England  than  in  the  South.  What  in 
vites  the  negro  to  the  ballot  box  ?  He  knows 
that,  of  all  men,  it  has  promised  him  most  and 
yielded  him  least.  His  first  appeal  to  suffrage 
was  the  promise  of  "  forty  acres  and  a  mule." 
His  second,  the  threat  that  Democratic  success 
meant  his  reenslavement.  Both  have  proved 
false  in  his  experience.  He  looked  for  a  home, 
and  he  got  the  freedman's  bank.  He  fought 
under  the  promise  of  the  loaf,  and  in  victory  was 
denied  the  crumbs.  Discouraged  and  deceived, 
he  has  realized  at  last  that  his  best  friends  are 
his  neighbors,  with  whom  his  lot  is  cast,  and 
whose  prosperity  is  bound  up  in  his  —  and  that 
he  has  gained  nothing  in  politics  to  compensate 
the  loss  of  their  confidence  and  sympathy  that 
is  at  last  his  best  and  his  enduring  hope.  And 
so,  without  leaders  or  organization  —  and  lack 
ing  the  resolute  heroism  of  my  party  friends  in 

211 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

Vermont  that  makes  their  hopeless  march  over 
the  hills  a  high  and  inspiring  pilgrimage — he 
shrewdly  measures  the  occasional  agitator,  bal 
ances  his  little  account  with  politics,  touches  up 
his  mule  and  jogs  down  the  furrow,  letting  the 
mad  world  jog  as  it  will ! 

The  negro  vote  can  never  control  in  the  South, 
and  it  would  be  well  if  partisans  in  the  North 
would  understand  this.  I  have  seen  the  white 
people  of  a  State  set  about  by  black  hosts  until 
their  fate  seemed  sealed.  But,  sir,  some  brave 
man,  banding  them  together,  would  rise,  as 
Elisha  rose  in  beleaguered  Samaria,  and  touching 
their  eyes  with  faith,  bid  them  look  abroad  to 
see  the  very  air  "  filled  with  the  chariots  of 
Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof."  If  there  is 
any  human  force  that  cannot  be  withstood,  it  is 
the  power  of  the  banded  intelligence  and  responsi 
bility  of  a  free  community.  Against  it,  numbers 
and  corruption  cannot  prevail.  It  cannot  be  for 
bidden  in  the  law  or  divorced  in  force.  It  is  the 
inalienable  right  of  every  free  community  —  and 
the  just  and  righteous  safeguard  against  an  ig 
norant  or  corrupt  suffrage.  It  is  on  this,  sir, 
that  we  rely  in  the  South.  Not  the  cowardly 
menace  of  mask  or  shotgun ;  but  the  peaceful 
majesty  of  intelligence  and  responsibility,  massed 
and  unified  for  the  protection  of  its  homes  and 
the  preservation  of  its  liberty.  That,  sir,  is  our 

212 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

reliance  and   our   hope,  and   against  it   all  the 
powers  of  the  earth  shall  not  prevail. 

It  was  just  as  certain  that  Virginia  would 
come  back  to  the  unchallenged  control  of  her 
white  race  —  that  before  the  moral  and  ma 
terial  power  of  her  people  once  more  unified, 
opposition  would  crumble  until  its  last  des 
perate  leader  was  left  alone  vainly  striving 
to  rally  his  disordered  hosts  —  as  that  night 
should  fade  in  the  kindling  glory  of  the  sun.  You 
may  pass  force  bills,  but  they  will  not  avail.  You 
may  surrender  your  own  liberties  to  federal 
election  law,  you  may  submit,  in  fear  of  a  neces 
sity  that  does  not  exist,  that  the  very  form  of 
this  government  may  be  changed  — this  old 
State  that  holds  in  its  charter  the  boast  that  « it 
is  a  free  and  independent  commonwealth  "  -  it 
may  deliver  its  election  machinery  into  the  hands 
of  the  government  it  helped  to  create  —  but 
never,  sir,  will  a  single  State  of  this  Union,  North 
or  South,  be  delivered  again  to  the  control  of 
an  ignorant  and  inferior  race.  We  wrested  our  / 
State  government  from  negro  supremacy  when  j 
the  Federal  drumbeat  rolled  closer  to  the  ballot 
box  and  Federal  bayonets  hedged  it  deeper  about 
than  will  ever  again  be  permitted  in  this  free 
government.  But,  sir,  though  the  cannon  of  this 
Republic  thundered  in  every  voting  district  of 
the  South,  we  still  should  find  in  the  mercy  of 

213 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

God  the  means  and  the  courage  to  prevent  its  re- 
establishment  ! 

I  regret,  sir,  that  my  section,  hindered  with 
this  problem,  stands  in  seeming  estrangement  to 
the  North.  If,  sir,  any  man  will  point  out  to 
me  a  path  down  which  the  white  people  of  the 
South  divided  may  walk  in  peace  and  honor,  I 
will  take  that  path  though  I  take  it  alone  —  for 
at  the  end,  and  nowhere  else,  I  fear,  is  to  be 
found  the  full  prosperity  of  my  section  and  the 
full  restoration  of  this  Union.  But,  sir,  if  the 
negro  had  not  been  enfranchised,  the  South  would 
have  been  divided  and  the  Republic  united.  What 
solution,  then,  can  we  offer  for  this  problem  ? 
Time  alone  can  disclose  it  to  us.  We  simply  re 
port  progress  and  ask  your  patience.  If  the  prob 
lem  be  solved  at  all  —  and  I  firmly  believe  it  will, 
though  nowhere  else  has  it  been  —  it  will  be 
solved  by  the  people  most  deeply  bound  in  inter 
est,  most  deeply  pledged  in  honor  to  its  solution. 
I  had  rather  see  my  people  render  back  this  ques 
tion  rightly  solved  than  to  see  them  gather  all  the 
spoils  over  which  faction  has  contended  since 
Catiline  conspired  and  Caesar  fought. 

Meantime  we  treat  the  negro  fairly,  meas 
uring  to  him  justice  in  the  fullness  the  strong 
should  give  to  the  weak,  and  leading  him 
in  the  steadfast  ways  of  citizenship  that  he 
may  no  longer  be  the  prey  of  the  unscrupulous 

214 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

and  the  sport  of  the  thoughtless.  We  open 
to  him  every  pursuit  in  which  he  can  prosper, 
and  seek  to  broaden  his  training  and  capac 
ity.  We  seek  to  hold  his  confidence  and  friend 
ship,  and  to  pin  him  to  the  soil  with  ownership, 
that  he  may  catch  in  the  fire  of  his  own  hearth 
stone  that  sense  of  responsibility  the  shiftless 
can  never  know.  And  we  gather  him  into  that 
alliance  of  intelligence  and  responsibility  that, 
though  it  now  runs  close  to  racial  lines,  welcomes 
the  responsible  and  intelligent  of  any  race.  By 
this  course,  confirmed  in  our  judgment  and  jus 
tified  in  the  progress  already  made,  we  hope  to 
progress  slowly  but  surely  to  the  end. 

The  love  we  feel  for  that  race  you  cannot 
measure  nor  comprehend.  As  I  attest  it  here,  the 
spirit  of  my  old  black  mammy  from  her  home  up 
there  looks  down  to  bless,  and  through  the  tumult 
of  this  night  steals  the  sweet  music  of  her  croon- 
ings  as  thirty  years  ago  she  held  me  in  her  black 
arms  and  led  me  smiling  into  sleep.  This  scene 
vanishes  as  I  speak,  and  I  catch  a  vision  of  an 
old  Southern  home,  with  its  lofty  pillars,  and  its 
white  pigeons  fluttering  down  through  the  golden 
air.  I  see  women  with  strained  and  anxious 
faces  and  children  alert  yet  helpless.  I  see  night 
come  down  with  its  dangers  and  its  apprehen 
sions,  and  in  a  big  homely  room  I  feel  on  my  tired 
head  the  touch  of  loving  hands,  now  worn  and 

215 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

wrinkled,  but  fairer  to  me  yet  than  the  hands  of 
mortal  woman,  and  stronger  yet  to  lead  me  than 
the  hands  of  mortal  man  —  as  they  lay  a  mother's 
blessing  there  while  at  her  knees,  the  truest 
altar  I  yet  have  found,  I  thank  God  that  she  is 
safe  in  her  sanctuary,  because  her  slaves,  sen 
tinel  in  the  silent  cabin  or  guard  at  her  chamber 
door,  put  a  black  man's  loyalty  between  her  and 
danger. 

I  catch  another  vision.  The  crisis  of  battle  — 
a  soldier  struck,  staggering,  fallen.  I  see  a  slave, 
scuffling  through  the  smoke,  winding  his  black 
arms  about  the  fallen  form,  reckless  of  the  hur 
tling  death,  bending  his  trusty  face  to  catch  the 
words  that  tremble  on  the  stricken  lips,  so  wres 
tling  meantime  with  agony  that  he  would  lay  down 
his  life  in  his  master's  stead.  I  see  him  by  the 
weary  bedside,  ministering  with  uncomplaining 
patience,  praying  with  all  his  humble  heart  that 
God  will  lift  his  master  up,  until  death  comes  in 
mercy  and  in  honor  to  still  the  soldier's  agony 
and  seal  the  soldier's  life.  I  see  him  by  the  open 
grave,  mute,  motionless,  uncovered,  suffering  for 
the  death  of  him  who  in  life  fought  against  his 
freedom.  I  see  him  when  the  mound  is  heaped 
and  the  great  drama  of  his  life  is  closed,  turn 
away  and  with  downcast  eyes  and  uncertain  step 
start  out  into  new  and  strange  fields,  faltering, 
struggling,  but  moving  on,  until  his  shambling 

216 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

figure  is  lost  in  the  light  of  this  better  and  brighter 
day.  And  from  the  grave  comes  a  voice  saying : 
"  Follow  him  !  Put  your  arms  about  him  in  his 
need,  even  as  he  put  his  about  me.  Be  his  friend 
as  he  was  mine."  And  out  into  this  new  world 
—  strange  to  me  as  to  him,  dazzling,  bewildering 
both — I  follow  !  And  may  God  forget  my  people 
when  they  forget  these. 

Whatever  the  future  may  hold  for  them  — 
whether  they  plod  along  in  the  servitude  from 
which  they  have  never  been  lifted  since  the  Cy- 
renian  was  laid  hold  upon  by  the  Roman  soldiers 
and  made  to  bear  the  cross  of  the  fainting  Christ ; 
whether  they  find  homes  again  in  Africa,  and 
thus  hasten  the  prophecy  of  the  psalmist  who 
said,  "  And  suddenly  Ethiopia  shall  hold  out  her 
hands  unto  God "  ;  whether,  forever  dislocated 
and  separated,  they  remain  a  weak  people  beset  by 
stronger,  and  exist  as  the  Turk,  who  lives  in  the 
jealousy  rather  than  in  the  conscience  of  Europe ; 
or  whether  in  this  miraculous  Republic  they 
break  through  the  caste  of  twenty  centuries  and, 
belying  universal  history,  reach  the  full  stature 
of  citizenship,  and  in  peace  maintain  it  —  we  shall 
give  them  uttermost  justice  and  abiding  friend 
ship.  And  whatever  we  do,  into  whatever  seem 
ing  estrangement  we  may  be  driven,  nothing  shall 
disturb  the  love  we  bear  this  Republic,  or  mitigate 
our  consecration  to  its  service. 

217 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

I  stand  here,  Mr.  President,  to  profess  no  new 
loyalty.  When  General  Lee,  whose  heart  was 
the  temple  of  our  hopes  and  whose  arm  was 
clothed  with  our  strength,  renewed  his  allegiance 
to  the  government  at  Appomattox,  he  spoke  from 
a  heart  too  great  to  be  false,  and  he  spoke  for 
every  honest  man  from  Maryland  to  Texas. 
From  that  day  to  this,  Hamilcar  has  nowhere  in 
the  South  sworn  young  Hannibal  to  hatred  and 
vengeance  —  but  everywhere  to  loyalty  and  to 
love.  Witness  the  soldier  standing  at  the  base 
of  a  Confederate  monument  above  the  graves  of 
his  comrades,  his  empty  sleeve  tossing  in  the 
April  wind,  adjuring  the  young  men  about  him 
to  serve  as  honest  and  loyal  citizens  the  govern 
ment  against  which  their  fathers  fought.  This 
message,  delivered  from  that  sacred  presence,  has 
gone  home  to  the  hearts  of  my  fellows !  And, 
sir,  I  declare  here,  if  physical  courage  be  always 
equal  to  human  aspiration,  that  they  would  die, 
sir,  if  need  be,  to  restore  this  Republic  their 
fathers  fought  to  dissolve ! 

Such,  Mr.  President,  is  this  problem  as  we  see 
it ;  such  is  the  temper  in  which  we  approach  it ; 
such  the  progress  made.  What  do  we  ask  of 
you  ?  First,  patience ;  out  of  this  alone  can 
come  perfect  work.  Second,  confidence  ;  in  this 
alone  can  you  judge  fairly.  Third,  sympathy ; 
in  this  you  can  help  us  best.  Fourth,  give  us 

218 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

your  sons  as  hostages.  When  you  plant  your 
capital  in  millions,  send  your  sons  that  they  may 
help  know  how  true  are  our  hearts  and  may  help 
swell  the  Anglo-Saxon  current  until  it  can  carry 
without  danger  this  black  infusion.  Fifth,  loy 
alty  to  the  Republic  —  for  there  is  sectionalism  in 
loyalty  as  in  estrangement.  This  hour  little 
needs  the  loyalty  that  is  loyal  to  one  section  and 
yet  holds  the  other  in  enduring  suspicion  and 
estrangement.  Give  us  the  broad  and  perfect 
loyalty  that  loves  and  trusts  Georgia  alike  with 
Massachusetts  —  that  knows  no  South,  no  North, 
no  East,  no  West ;  but  endears  with  equal  and 
patriotic  love  every  foot  of  our  soil,  every  State 
of  our  Union. 

A  mighty  duty,  sir,  and  a  mighty  inspiration 
impels  every  one  of  us  to-night  to  lose  in  patriotic 
consecration  whatever  estranges,  whatever  di 
vides.  We,  sir,  are  Americans,  and  we  fight  for 
human  liberty.  The  uplifting  force  of  the 
American  idea  is  under  every  throne  on  earth. 
France,  Brazil  —  these  are  our  victories.  To  re 
deem  the  earth  from  kingcraft  and  oppression  — 
this  is  our  mission.  And  we  shall  not  fail.  God 
has  sown  in  our  soil  the  seed  of  His  millennial 
harvest,  and  He  will  not  lay  the  sickle  to  the 
ripening  crop  until  His  full  and  perfect  day  has 
come.  Our  history,  sir,  has  been  a  constant  and 
expanding  miracle  from  Plymouth  Rock  and 

219 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

Jamestown  all  the  way  —  aye,  even  from  the 
hour  when,  from  the  voiceless  and  trackless  ocean, 
a  new  world  rose  to  the  sight  of  the  inspired 
sailor. 

As  we  approach  the  fourth  centennial  of  that 
stupendous  day,  when  the  old  world  will  come  to 
marvel  and  to  learn,  amid  our  gathered  treasures, 
let  us  resolve  to  crown  the  miracles  of  our  past 
with  the  spectacle  of  a  Republic  compact,  united, 
indissoluble  in  the  bonds  of  love,  loving  from  the 
Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  the  wounds  of  war  healed  in 
every  heart  as  on  every  hill  —  serene  and  re 
splendent  at  the  summit  of  human  achievement 
and  earthly  glory  —  blazing  out  the  path,  and 
making  clear  the  way  up  which  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth  must  come  in  God's  appointed  time ! 


PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

A  speech  delivered  before  the  Bay  State  Club,  Boston, 
December,  1889.  This  speech,  which  was  made  the  day  follow 
ing  the  delivery  of  the  preceding,  was  wholly  impromptu,  and 
was  Grady's  last  public  utterance. 

Mr.  President  and  gentlemen :  I  am  confident 
you  will  not  expect  a  speech  from  me  this 
afternoon,  especially  as  my  voice  is  in  such  a 
condition  that  I  can  hardly  talk.  I  am  free  to 
say  that  it  is  not  a  lack  of  ability  to  talk,  because 
I  am  a  talker  by  inheritance.  My  father  was 
an  Irishman,  my  mother  was  a  woman;  both 
talked.  I  come  by  it  honestly. 

I  don't  know  how  I  could  take  up  any  discus 
sion  here  or  any  topic  apart  from  the  incidents  of 
the  past  two  days.  I  saw  this  morning  Plymouth 
Rock.  I  was  pulled  up  on  top  of  it  and  was 
told  to  make  a  speech. 

It  reminded  me  of  an  old  friend  of  mine,  Judge 
Dooley,  of  Georgia,  who  was  a  very  provoking 
fellow  and  was  always  getting  challenged  to  duels 
and  never  fighting  them.  He  always  got  out  of 
it  by  being  smarter  than  the  other  fellow.  One 
day  he  went  out  to  fight  a  man  with  one  leg, 
and  he  insisted  on  bringing  along  a  bee  gum  and 
sticking  one  leg  into  it  so  he  would  have  no 

221 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

more  flesh  exposed  than  his  antagonist.  On  the 
occasion  I  am  thinking  of,  however,  he  went  out 
to  fight  with  a  man  who  had  St.  Vitus's  dance, 
and  the  fellow  stood  before  him  holding  the 
pistol  cocked  and  primed,  his  hand  shaking.  The 
judge  went  quietly  and  got  a  forked  stick  and 
stuck  it  up  in  front  of  him. 

«  What's  that  for  ?  "  said  the  man. 

« I  want  you  to  shoot  with  a  rest,  so  that  if 
you  hit  me  you  will  bore  only  one  hole.  If 
you  shoot  me  that  way,  you  will  fill  me  full  of 
holes  with  one  shot." 

I  was  reminded  of  that  and  forced  to  tell  my 
friends  that  I  could  not  think  of  speaking  on  top 
of  Plymouth  Rock  without  a  rest. 

But  I  said  this,  and  I  want  to  say  it  here 
again,  for  I  never  knew  how  true  it  was  till  I 
had  heard  myself  say  it  and  had  taken  the  evi 
dence  of  my  voice,  as  well  as  my  thoughts  — 
that  there  is  no  spot  on  earth  that  I  had  rather 
have  seen  than  that.  I  have  a  boy  who  is  the 
pride  and  the  promise  of  my  life,  and  God  knows 
I  want  him  to  be  a  good  citizen  and  a  good  man, 
and  there  is  no  spot  in  all  this  broad  Republic 
nor  in  all  this  world  where  I  had  rather  have 
him  stand  to  learn  the  lessons  of  right  citizenship, 
of  individual  liberty,  of  fortitude  and  heroism 
and  justice,  than  the  spot  on  which  I  stood  this 
morning,  reverent  and  uncovered. 

222 


PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

Now,  I  do  not  intend  to  make  a  political 
speech,  although  when  Mr.  Cleveland  expressed 
some  surprise  at  seeing  me  here,  I  said,  "  Why, 
I  am  at  home  now  ;  I  was  out  visiting  last 
night."  I  was  visiting  mighty  clever  folks,  but 
still  I  was  visiting.  Now  I  am  at  home. 

It  is  the  glory  and  the  promise  of  Democracy, 
it  seems  to  me,  that  its  success  means  more 
than  partisanry  can  mean.  I  have  been  told 
that  what  I  said  helped  the  Democratic  party  in 
the  State.  Well,  the  chief  joy  that  I  feel  at 
that,  and  that  you  feel,  is  that,  beyond  that  and 
above  it,  it  helped  those  larger  interests  of  the 
Republic,  and  those  essential  interests  of  human 
ity  that  for  seventy  years  the  Democratic  party 
has  stood  for,  being  the  guarantor  and  defender. 

Now,  Mr.  Cleveland  last  night  made  —  I  trust 
this  will  not  get  into  the  papers  —  one  of  the 
best  Democratic  speeches  I  ever  heard  in  my  life, 
and  yet  all  around  sat  Republicans  cheering  him 
to  the  echo.  It  is  just  simply  because  he  pitched 
his  speech  on  a  high  key,  and  because  he  said 
things  that  no  man,  no  matter  how  partisan  he 
was,  could  gainsay. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  we  do  not  care  much  for 
political  success  in  the  South  —  for  a  simple 
question  of  spoils  or  of  patronage.  We  wanted 
to  see  one  Democratic  administration  since 
General  Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox,  just  to 

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ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

prove  to  the  people  of  this  world  that  the  South 
was  not  the  wrong-headed  and  impulsive  and 
passionate  section  she  was  represented  to  be.  I 
heard  last  night  from  Mr.  Cleveland,  our  great 
leader,  as  he  sat  by  me,  that  he  held  to  be  the 
miracle  of  modern  history  the  conservatism  and 
the  temperance  and  the  quiet  with  which  the 
South  accepted  his  election,  and  the  few  office- 
seekers  in  comparison  that  came  from  that 
section  to  besiege  and  importune  him. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  that  the  struggle  in  this 
country,  the  great  fight,  the  roar  and  din  of 
which  we  already  hear,  is  a  fight  against  the 
consolidation  of  power,  the  concentration  of  cap 
ital,  the  diminution  of  local  sovereignty  and  the 
dwarfing  of  the  individual  citizen.  Boston  is 
the  home  of  one  section  of  a  nationalist  party 
that  claims  that  the  remedy  for  all  our  troubles, 
the  way  in  which  Dives,  who  sits  inside  the  gate, 
shall  be  controlled,  and  the  poor  Lazarus  who 
sits  outside  shall  be  lifted  up,  is  for  the  govern 
ment  to  usurp  the  functions  of  the  citizen  and 
take  charge  of  all  his  affairs.  It  is  the  Demo 
cratic  doctrine  that  the  citizen  is  the  master,  and 
that  the  best  guarantee  of  this  government  is  not 
garnered  powers  at  the  capital,  but  diffused  in 
telligence  and  liberty  among  the  people. 

My  friend,  General  Collins  —  who,  by  the 
way,  captured  my  whole  State  and  absolutely 

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PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

conjured  the  ladies  —  when  he  came  down  there 
talked  about  this  to  us,  and  he  gave  us  a  train 
of  thought  that  we  have  improved  to  advantage. 

It  is  the  pride,  I  believe,  of  the  South,  with 
her  simple  faith  and  her  homogeneous  people, 
that  we  elevate  there  the  citizen  above  the  party, 
and  the  citizen  above  everything.  We  teach  a 
man  that  his  best  guide  at  last  is  his  own  con 
science,  that  his  sovereignty  rests  beneath  his 
hat,  that  his  own  right  arm  and  his  own  stout 
heart  are  his  best  dependence ;  that  he  should  rely 
on  his  State  for  nothing  that  he  can  do  for  him 
self,  and  on  his  government  for  nothing  that  his 
State  can  do  for  him ;  but  that  he  should  stand 
upright  and  self-respecting,  dowering  his  family  in 
the  sweat  of  his  brow,  loving  to  his  State,  loyal 
to  his  Republic,  earnest  in  his  allegiance  wher 
ever  it  rests,  but  building  at  last  his  altars  above 
his  own  hearthstone  and  shrining  his  own  liberty 
in  his  own  heart.  That  is  a  sentiment  that  I 
would  not  have  been  afraid  to  avow  last  night. 
And  yet  it  is  mighty  good  Democratic  doctrine, 
too. 

I  went  to  Washington  the  other  day,  and  I 
stood  on  the  Capitol  hill,  and  my  heart  beat  quick 
as  I  looked  at  the  towering  marble  of  my  coun 
try's  Capitol,  and  a  mist  gathered  in  my  eyes  as 
I  thought  of  its  tremendous  significance,  of  the 
armies  and  the  treasury,  and  the  judges  and  the 
Q  225 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

President,  and  the  Congress  and  the  courts,  and 
all  that  was  gathered  there ;  and  I  felt  that  the 
sun  in  all  its  course  could  not  look  down  on  a 
better  sight  than  that  majestic  home  of  a 
Republic  that  has  taught  the  world  its  best 
lessons  of  liberty.  And  I  felt  that  if  honor  and 
wisdom  and  justice  abided  therein,  the  world 
would  at  last  owe  that  great  house,  in  which 
the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  my  country  is  lodged, 
its  final  uplifting  and  its  regeneration. 

But  a  few  days  afterwrards  I  went  to  visit  a 
friend  in  the  country,  a  modest  man,  with  a 
quiet  country  home.  It  was  just  a  simple,  un 
pretentious  house,  set  about  with  great  trees  and 
encircled  in  meadow  and  field  rich  with  the 
promise  of  harvest ;  the  fragrance  of  pink  and 
hollyhock  in  the  front  yard  was  mingled  with 
the  aroma  of  the  orchard  and  the  garden,  and 
the  resonant  clucking  of  poultry  and  the  hum  of 
bees.  Inside  was  quiet,  cleanliness,  thrift,  and 
comfort. 

Outside  there  stood  my  friend,  the  master  — 
a  simple,  independent,  upright  man,  with  no 
mortgage  on  his  roof,  no  lien  on  his  growing 
crops  —  master  of  his  land  and  master  of  him 
self.  There  was  the  old  father,  an  aged  and 
trembling  man,  but  happy  in  the  heart  and  home 
of  his  son.  And,  as  he  started  to  enter  his 
home,  the  hand  of  the  old  man  went  down  on 

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PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

the  young  man's  shoulder,  laying  there  the  un 
speakable  blessing  of  an  honored  and  honorable 
father,  and  ennobling  it  with  the  knighthood  of 
the  fifth  commandment.  And  as  we  approached 
the  door  the  mother  came,  a  happy  smile  lighting 
up  her  face,  while  with  the  rich  music  of  her 
heart  she  bade  her  husband  and  her  son  welcome 
to  their  home.  Beyond  was  the  housewife,  busy 
with  her  domestic  affairs,  the  loving  helpmate  of 
her  husband.  Down  the  lane  came  the  children 
after  the  cows,  singing  sweetly,  as  like  birds 
they  sought  the  quiet  of  their  rest. 

So  the  night  came  down  on  that  house,  falling 
gently  as  the  wing  of  an  unseen  dove.  And  the 
old  man,  while  a  startled  bird  called  from  the 
forest  and  the  trees  thrilled  with  the  cricket's 
cry,  and  the  stars  were  falling  from  the  sky, 
called  the  family  around  him  and  took  the  Bible 
from  the  table  and  called  them  to  their  knees. 
The  little  baby  hid  in  the  folds  of  its  mother's 
dress  while  he  closed  the  record  of  that  day  by 
calling  down  God's  blessing  on  that  simple  home. 
While  I  gazed,  the  vision  of  the  marble  Capitol 
faded ;  forgotten  were  its  treasuries  and  its 
majesty ;  and  I  said,  "  Surely  here  in  the  homes 
of  the  people  lodge  at  last  the  strength  and  the  re 
sponsibility  of  this  government,  the  hope  and  the 
promise  of  this  Republic." 

My  friends,  that  is  the  Democracy  of  the  South, 
227 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

that  is  the  Democratic  doctrine  we  preach ;  a 
doctrine,  sir,  that  is  writ  above  our  hearthstones. 
We  aim  to  make  our  homes,  poor  as  they  are, 
self-respecting  and  independent.  We  try  to  make 
them  temples  of  refinement,  in  which  our 
daughters  may  learn  that  woman's  best  charm 
and  strength  are  her  gentleness  and  her  grace, 
and  temples  of  liberty  in  which  our  sons  may 
learn  that  no  power  can  justify  and  no  treasure 
repay  for  the  surrender  of  the  slightest  right  of  a 
free  individual  American  citizen. 

Now  you  do  not  know  how  we  love  you  Demo 
crats.  Had  we  better  print  that  ?  Yes,  we  do,  of 
course  we  do.  If  a  man  does  not  love  his  home 
folks,  whom  should  he  love  ?  We  know  how  gal 
lant  a  fight  you  have  made  here,  not  as  hard  and 
hopeless  as  our  friends  in  Vermont,  but  still  an  up 
hill  fight.  You  have  done  better,  much  better. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  have  some  mighty  good 
Democrats  here.  There  is  one  of  the  fattest  and 
best  in  the  world,  sitting  right  over  there  [point 
ing  to  his  partner,  Mr.  Howell~\. 

You  want  to  know  about  the  South.  My  friends, 
we  representative  men  will  tell  you  about  it.  I 
just  want  to  say  that  we  have  had  a  hard  time 
down  there. 

When  my  partner  came  out  of  the  war,  he 
didn't  have  any  breeches.  That  is  an  actual  fact. 
Well,  his  wife,  one  of  the  best  women  that  ever 

228 


PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

lived,  reared  in  the  lap  of  luxury,  took  her  old 
woolen  dress  that  she  had  worn  during  the  war 
—  and  it  had  been  a  garment  of  sorrow  and  con 
secration  and  of  heroism  —  and  cut  it  up  and 
made  a  good  pair  of  breeches.  He  started  with 
that  pair  of  breeches  and  with  f  5  in  gold  as  his 
capital,  and  he  scraped  up  boards  from  amid  the 
ashes  of  his  home,  and  built  him  a  shanty  which 
love  made  a  home  and  which  courtesy  made 
hospitable.  And  now  I  believe  he  has  with  him 
three  pairs  of  breeches  and  several  pairs  at  home. 
We  have  prospered  down  there. 

I  attended  a  funeral  once  in  Pickens  County 
in  my  State.  A  funeral  is  not  usually  a  cheerful 
object  to  me  unless  I  could  select  the  subject.  I 
think  I  could,  perhaps,  without  going  a  hundred 
miles  from  here,  find  the  material  for  one  or  two 
cheerful  funerals.  Still,  this  funeral  was  pecul 
iarly  sad.  It  was  a  poor  "  one  gallus  "  fellow, 
whose  breeches  struck  him  under  the  armpits 
and  hit  him  at  the  other  end  about  the  knee  — 
he  didn't  believe  in  d&collete,  clothes.  They  bur 
ied  him  in  the  midst  of  a  marble  quarry  :  they 
cut  through  solid  marble  to  make  his  grave;  and 
yet  a  little  tombstone  they  put  above  him  was 
from  Vermont.  They  buried  him  in  the  heart 
of  a  pine  forest,  and  yet  the  pine  coffin  was  im 
ported  from  Cincinnati.  They  buried  him  within 
touch  of  an  iron  mine,  and  yet  the  nails  in  his 

229 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

coffin  and  the  iron  in  the  shovel  that  dug  his 
grave  were  imported  from  Pittsburg.  They  bur 
ied  him  by  the  side  of  the  best  sheep-grazing 
country  on  the  earth,  and  yet  the  wool  in  the 
coffin  bands  and  the  coffin  bands  themselves  were 
brought  from  the  North.  The  South  didn't  fur 
nish  a  thing  on  earth  for  that  funeral  but  the 
corpse  and  the  hole  in  the  ground.  There  they 
put  him  away  and  the  clods  rattled  down  on  his 
coffin,  and  they  buried  him  in  a  New  York  coat 
and  a  Boston  pair  of  shoes  and  a  pair  of  breeches 
from  Chicago  and  a  shirt  from  Cincinnati,  leaving 
him  nothing  to  carry  into  the  next  world  with 
him  to  remind  him  of  the  country  in  which  he 
lived  and  for  which  he  fought  for  four  years,  but 
the  chilled  blood  in  his  veins  and  the  marrow  in 
his  bones. 

Now  we  have  improved  on  that.  We  have  got 
the  biggest  marble-cutting  establishment  on  earth 
within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  grave.  We  have 
got  a  half-dozen  woolen  mills  right  around  it, 
and  iron  mines,  and  iron  furnaces,  and  iron 
factories.  We  are  coming  to  meet  you.  We 
are  going  to  take  a  noble  revenge,  as  my  friend, 
Mr.  Carnegie,  said  last  night,  by  invading  every 
inch  of  your  territory  with  iron,  as  you  invaded 
ours  twenty-nine  years  ago. 

[A  voice:  I  want  to  know  if  the  tariff  built 
up  those  industries  down  there  ?] 

230 


PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

Mr.  Grady:  The  tariff?  Well,  to  be  per 
fectly  frank  with  you,  I  think  it  helped  some ; 
but  you  can  bet  your  bottom  dollar  that  we  are 
Democrats  straight  from  the  soles  of  our  feet  to 
the  top  of  our  heads,  and  Mr.  Cleveland  will  not 
have,  if  he  runs  again,  which  I  am  inclined  to 
think  he  ought  to  do,  a  stronger  following. 

Now,  I  want  to  say  one  word  about  the  re 
ception  we  had  here.  It  has  been  a  constant 
revelation  of  hospitality  and  kindness  and 
brotherhood  from  the  whole  people  of  this  city 
to  myself  and  my  friends.  It  has  touched  us 
beyond  measure. 

I  was  struck  with  one  thing  last  night.  Every 
speaker  that  arose  expressed  his  confidence  in  the 
future  and  lasting  glory  of  this  Republic.  There 
may  be  men,  and  there  are,  who  insist  on  getting 
up  fratricidal  strife,  and  who  infamously  fan  the 
embers  of  war  that  they  may  raise  them  again 
into  a  blaze.  But  just  as  certain  as  there  is  a 
God  in  the  heavens,  when  those  noisy  insects  of 
the  hour  have  perished  in  the  heat  that  gave  them 
life  and  their  pestilent  tongues  have  ceased,  the 
great  clock  of  this  Republic  will  strike  the  slow- 
moving  tranquil  hours,  and  the  watchman  from 
the  street  will  cry,  «  All  is  well  with  the  Re 
public  ;  all  is  well." 

We  bring  to  you,  from  hearts  that  yearn  for 
your  confidence  and  for  your  love,  the  message  of 

231 


ORATIONS  AND  SPEECHES 

fellowship  from  our  homes.  This  message  comes 
from  consecrated  ground.  The  fields  in  which 
I  played  were  the  battlefields  of  this  Republic, 
hallowed  to  you  with  the  blood  of  your  soldiers 
who  died  in  victory,  and  doubly  sacred  to  us 
with  the  blood  of  ours  who  died  undaunted  in 
defeat.  All  around  my  home  are  set  the  moun 
tains  and  hills  down  which  the  gray  flag  fluttered 
to  defeat,  and  through  which  American  soldiers 
from  either  side  charged  like  demigods  ;  and  I  do 
not  think  I  could  bring  you  a  false  message  from 
those  old  hills  and  those  sacred  fields  —  wit 
nesses  twenty  years  ago,  in  their  red  desolation, 
of  the  deathless  valor  of  American  arms  and  the 
quenchless  bravery  of  American  hearts,  and  in 
their  white  peace  and  tranquillity  to-day  of  the 
imperishable  Union  of  the  American  States  and 
the  indestructible  brotherhood  of  the  American 
people. 

It  is  likely  that  I  will  not  again  see  Bosto- 
nians  assembled  together.  I  therefore  want  to 
take  this  occasion  to  thank  you,  and  my  excel 
lent  friends  of  last  night  and  those  friends  who 
accompanied  us  this  morning,  for  all  that  you 
have  done  for  us  since  we  have  been  in  your 
city,  and  to  say  that  whenever  any  of  you  come 
South  just  speak  your  name,  and  remember  that 
Boston  or  Massachusetts  is  the  watchword,  and 
we  will  meet  you  at  the  gates. 

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PLYMOUTH  ROCK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

"  The  monarch  may  forget  the  crown 

That  on  his  head  so  late  hath  been ; 
The  bridegroom  may  forget  the  bride 

Was  made  his  own  but  yester  e'en ; 
The  mother  may  forget  the  babe 

That  smiled  so  sweetly  on  her  knee ; 
But  forget  thee  will  I  ne'er,  Glencairn, 

And  all  that  thou  hast  done  for  me. " 


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U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


